Wages for construction workers on enterprise bargaining agreements have tripled over the past two decades in Victoria and NSW – in line with the price growth of a Big Mac hamburger – outstripping both inflation and the wage growth of public servants, teachers and public-sector medical doctors over the same time.

Hourly wage rates of carpenters, electricians and plumbers employed under collective agreements struck by the main CFMEU, ETU and CEPU unions jumped 200 per cent, or tripled, between 2000 and 2024, while CPI inflation rose 95 per cent, almost doubling, new analysis shows.