Full-time award pay to rise $10,000 a year

Full-time award workers will by next week have received an extra $5.30 an hour average pay increase under the Albanese government, equivalent to an extra $200 a week or $10,400 a year before tax, new analysis reveals.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke says it took the ­Coalition a decade to achieve what Labor had delivered in two years. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Full-time award workers will by next week have received an extra $5.30 an hour average pay increase under the Albanese government, equivalent to an extra $200 a week or $10,400 a year before tax, new analysis reveals.

New data by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations also reveals average pay rises in new enterprise agreements were 3.9 per cent in the March quarter, while the number of workers covered by current agreements was 2.14 million, up by 480,000 since Labor came to office in May 2022.

According to DEWR analysis, when the latest increase in minimum and award wages kicks in from July 1, the minimum wage will have increased by $3.77 an hour over the life of the Albanese government.

A full-time minimum wage worker will have received an extra $143 a week, or $7451 a year, before tax, with their annual salary rising from $40,175 to $47,627 in just over two years.

The government says the combination of three annual minimum and award wage increases since the election and the July 1 tax cuts means that, after tax, full-time award-reliant retail workers will be $102 a week better off, a cleaner will be ahead by $103 a week, and hairdressers by $107 a week.

According to the analysis, the pay rises and tax cuts will mean that aged-care workers will be better off by $202 a week from July 1 and minimum wage workers by $120 a week

Under Labor, the Fair Work Commission has increased the minimum wage by 5.2 per cent, 8.6 per cent and 3.75 per cent, taking it from $20.33 an hour to $24.10 on July 1.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said it took the ­Coalition a decade to achieve what Labor had delivered in two years. “This is what happens when you have a government that goes in to bat for low-paid workers,” he said.

“When you show up at the commission and advocate for people who are doing it tough, you get results.

“We’ve delivered these wage increases while keeping unemployment at record lows and getting inflation to moderate.”

New data to be released by the DEWR on Friday shows average pay rises in enterprise agreement were 3.9 per cent in the March quarter. Agreements approved in the quarter covered 364,996 employees, the highest quarterly number of employees covered by newly approved agreements since the 2013 September quarter.

An estimated 2.14 million people were covered by a current enterprise agreement in the March quarter 2024, 480,000 more than when Labor came to office.

Jim Chalmers said under the government, “people are earning more, and from next week, they’ll keep more of what they earn”.

“We’ve seen real wage growth return ahead of schedule and the government’s policies have helped deliver that growth for workers, sooner,” the Treasurer said. Yet while better wages growth was encouraging, it was “not mission accomplished”.

“We know people are still under pressure, which is why our cost-of-living tax cuts are so important,” he said.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said July would be “a great month for working people after years of being hit with cost-of-­living pressures made worse by big business price gouging”.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said above-inflation pay rises were not sustainable without matching productivity growth.

“The risk is higher wages growth above inflation is only going to feed back into costs, and feed back into keeping inflation at a high level, and that means higher interest rates for longer,” Mr McKellar said.