National minimum wage increased to $20.33 per hour, up almost 2.5 per cent

More than 2.2 million Australians are set to receive a pay rise after a key group of workers were deemed to be due for an increase.

More than 2.2 million Australians are set to receive a pay rise after the Fair Work Commission resolved to lift the minimum wage by 49 cents an hour.

The national minimum wage (NMW) will now be $20.33 per hour, or $772.60 per 38-hour week before tax, up 2.46 per cent.

The previous rate was $19.84 per hour, or $753.80 per week.

The increase to modern award minimum wages was a whisker higher at 2.5 per cent.

All workers in Australia are legally entitled to the minimum wage, which is the lowest amount an employee can be paid for their toils, whereas a modern award has minimum terms and conditions of employment on top of the basic NMW.

BUT…these pay rises won’t start flowing on 1 July. Some are delayed until September (retail) or November (aviation, fitness, tourism, events). Remember, delays = wage freezes. Last year’s rise was only 1.75% and also included delays. How good is low wage growth, huh? #auspol

— Jessica Munday (@MundayJessica) June 16, 2021

Both the Australian Council of Trade Unions and Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, which represents retail, fast food and warehouse workers, had called for an increase of 3.5 per cent.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus declared the FWC’s determination a win by the unions, saying it affected nearly one-quarter of the nation’s workers.

“We’re the only people who have been arguing for fair pay increases for working people,” Ms McManus said.

“The employers argued for increases that would mean (in real terms) wage freezes or wage cuts and that was supported by the federal government.”

She said it was very disappointing the FWC had delayed the increase for certain sectors including fitness, tourism and retail.

“Retail workers are essential workers who worked all the way through the pandemic - some of those workers work for very, very profitable companies that actually had record profits during the pandemic.

“There is no reason and in fact it is unfair to delay the increases for those workers.”

The FWC decided there were exceptional circumstances justifying delaying retail workers the pay rise until September 1 because, even though supermarkets and homeware businesses had performed well during the pandemic, “it is likely that other businesses covered by the award have been substantially impacted”.

Wow! wait for apoplexy from BCA and other industry groups, it'll be the end of civilization as we know it, the country will go bankrupt.

— hoddo(peter hodgson) (@hoddo461) June 16, 2021

Opposition spokesman for industrial relations Tony Burke said the hard-fought increase could have been higher but the Morrison government “refused to lift a finger for higher rates of pay”.

The FWC confirmed in the annual review the federal government and the majority of state governments did not want a “quantum” — or sudden and significant — increase to wages.

“A whole lot of workers won’t even receive what’s been announced today,” Mr Burke told reporters.

“That’s because of wage theft, which the government has still refused to act on and secondly because of the number of workers now, particularly in the gig economy, who don’t even get paid the legal minimum.

“And when we’ve raised this with the government, their response has simply been ‘oh it would be complicated’.

“The Reserve Bank of Australia has made it really clear that what we need to do right now is to get people spending and that means a pay rise.”

The most recent annual inflation reading was 1.1 per cent, the rate at which both the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Ai Group proposed lifting wages.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions and Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association had called for an increase of 3.5 per cent. Picture: Peter Rae/AAP