Casual pay gap hits record high

The hourly pay gap between casuals and permanent workers is reached 28 per cent, the highest on record

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said it showed why the Morrison government’s industrial relations changes needed to be scrapped.

The hourly pay gap between ­casuals and permanent workers is the highest on record, growing to 28 per cent, ACTU research has found.

Across the board, casual employees earn $11.59 less an hour than permanent counterparts: $28.95 compared to $40.54.

When comparing workers at the same skill level or within the same occupation, the pay gap between casuals and permanents is between $3.55 to $3.84 an hour, or about 11 per cent.

This is despite casuals being entitled to an extra loading of up to 25 per cent.

According to the latest ACTU polling of workers, 50 per cent of casuals report being financially worse off than they were 12 months ago, up from 36 per cent recorded a year earlier.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said it showed why Morrison government industrial relations changes needed to be scrapped and a “commonsense definition of casual work” legislated by Labor.

“Too many casuals are casual in name only. Too many jobs that are actually permanent jobs have been made casual, denying workers both pay and rights,” she said.

“The majority of casuals work regular hours, week in, week out, and have been in their job for more than a year. Changes made by the Morrison Coalition government in early 2021 made this erosion of job security completely lawful.”

She said workers deserved ­reliable jobs so they had reliable incomes. “Big business has used loopholes in our work laws to make what should be secure jobs into casualised, insecure work,” she said. “It is a way of driving down wages and putting all the stress on to workers.

“We need to close these loopholes so workers who are misclassified as casuals and underpaid can gain job security and have jobs they can rely on.

“We also need to empower the Fair Work Commission to sort out a dispute over who is and who isn’t a casual quickly, rather than leaving it to expensive, drawn-out litigation where those with the deepest pockets usually win.”

According to the research paper, close to 2.6 million people are on casual work arrangements, or a little under one in four employees. “While casual employment was at a record high just before the pandemic, 2020 saw more than half a million casual workers lose their jobs as many customer-facing businesses were forced to close their doors,” it said.

“Businesses preferred to let casuals go, particularly as many weren’t initially eligible for JobKeeper payments. Levels of casual employment have now largely recovered.”

Women make up 55 per cent of casual employees and 40 per cent of casual employees are between the ages of 15 to 24. Retail, accommodation and food ser­vices and healthcare and social assistance employ 55 per cent of all casual employees.