The coronavirus pandemic has cut growth in the Wage Price Index in the private sector to the lowest level in its 23-year history, the ABS has confirmed today.
Today's Federal Government economic and fiscal update forecasts record low wages growth of 1.25% in 2020-21 due to the recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FWC will today hold its final hearing in this year's minimum wage review, in which employers and unions are divided over whether the domestic economy has started to recover from the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.
The NSW Government has taken off the table its offer of a $1000 "bonus" and job guarantee in lieu of a pay rise for frontline public servants, as it pursues the freeze in the NSW IRC, following a disallowance motion in the Upper House.
Unions are still in the dark about which NSW public servants would qualify for a $1000 frontline worker 'bonus' in lieu of a pay rise, while a health union has asked the State Treasurer to ditch a 2.5% wages cap before it puts the offer to members.
The NSW Government has imposed a 12-month wage freeze on its 408,000-strong public sector workforce, but has provided a job security guarantee for the same period.
Large numbers of retail employees covered by agreements approved in the second half of last year face wage freezes if employers succeed in their campaign for a coronavirus-driven pause in minimum pay rises such as that adopted during the GFC, new Attorney-General's Department data on bargained wage rises reveals.
Growth in private sector rates of pay excluding bonuses remained stagnant at the end of last year, but continued to outpace inflation, according to ABS data released today.
Bargained wage rises in the private sector dropped to 2.7% a year in the September quarter, according to newly-released Attorney-General's Department data that also shows some large retail employers are starting to tie increases to the FWC's annual review.
