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Unions push for higher minimum wage, Porter warns it will cost jobs
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has renewed its bid for a $30-a-week increase to the minimum wage even as data shows mass job losses because of the coronavirus.
Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter said it was "basic economics" the ACTU's proposal would put jobs at risk as the country recovers from the pandemic because of Australia's already high minimum wage by global standards.
Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter says the ACTU's proposed minimum wage would put jobs at risk.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
However, the national peak union body argued a 4 per cent rise in the minimum wage, which affects about 2.2 million workers' pay, was essential to bolster an economic recovery by giving workers on low wages more money to spend at local businesses.
The minimum wage stands at $19.49 an hour, an amount many employer groups want to stay the same this year because of the country's poor economic conditions.
But the ACTU said the wage arbiter "must not take the view that all businesses must be kept viable at all costs" and should also consider workers' interests.
Increased unemployment as a result of higher wages, the ACTU wrote in its submission to the annual minimum wage inquiry, would be diminished by the number of foreign workers who have left the country as a result of the pandemic.
Employer bodies Ai Group and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, along with Mr Porter, argued businesses could not afford a higher wage without job losses.
"You wouldn't want to do things that unnecessarily jeopardised a recovery," Mr Porter said on ABC TV on Tuesday. "Recovery has at its very centre the creation and preservation and growth of jobs and employment."
The minimum wage process has already been pushed back repeatedly from its scheduled timetable to give time for business groups and unions to understand how bad the economic effects of the pandemic are.
Treasury has forecast the unemployment rate to double to 10 per cent by June and 500,000 people signed up for the dole in the six weeks after the virus hit Australia.
Sectors such as hospitality and retail, which have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, also have some of the largest numbers of workers reliant on the minimum wage.
The ACCI said employers in those industries were already struggling to pay workers their salaries.
"Increases in the ... minimum wage in the current extremely fragile economic environment could exacerbate the economic downturn, slow the recovery, frustrate efforts to get people back into work, and risk further job losses," the chamber wrote in its submission.