The average weekly ordinary time earnings increased 1.2 per cent over the last six months and an annual increase of 2.4 per cent – well below government budget forecasts for wages growth and barely keeping pace with inflation - according to ABS stats released this morning.
Our broken industrial relations system does not give working people the negotiating power they need to win fair pay increases.
The Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison Government keeps telling working people to wait for the pay rises to trickle down from the increased profits and productivity but this is not happening. Wage growth has been stalled at near-record lows for years.
As noted by ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:
"Australian workers need pay rises but we are not getting them. The system is broken, it needs to be fixed and rebalanced. We've had six years of unrelenting low wage growth under this government.
"The Morrison Government has no answer to years of record low wage growth apart from throwing more taxpayers' money at the very rich. It hasn't worked and never will, we need to change the rules to give workers better rights.
"We will not see wage growth that keeps working people ahead of the costs of living until our workplace laws are fixed. We need a living wage and bargaining laws rights and protections that work.
"The Morrison Government has no interest in fixing the wage crisis as it is only concerned with delivering for the big end of town.
"They are so out of touch that they do not understand that working people are struggling to get ahead. When Government Ministers do not even notice they did not pay for overseas flights, they are even less likely to know what it is like to not be able to afford petrol."
