Sham contractors face higher penalties and a harder time showing they have inadvertently misrepresented employment arrangements under legislative changes contemplated by a Treasury discussion paper.
The ACTU has released a new paper which argues that most casual workers get nowhere near the 25% loading due to them, instead receiving a "modest wage premium" of 4% to 5% more than permanent employees.
The push to criminalise so-called "wage theft" by employers might be a less effective deterrent than an increased number of civil prosecutions, according to a new academic paper.
The gender pay gap has dropped from 24.7% to 21.3% over the past five years but many companies are still harbouring an "action gap", with policies in place but no accountability for implementing them, says the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
Labour costs have fallen for the second successive quarter to leave an annual decline of 1.2% in trend terms, while productivity has continued to rise, according to ABS national accounts data released today.
Academics, employers and unions have roundly criticised the ABS's decision not to review occupational classifications used to keep pace with new and emerging jobs in the digital era, warning it undermines their ability to plan for the workforce of the future.
Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has told a House of Representatives committee that the RBA is doing what it can to respond to slow wage growth, admitting his stance has been controversial, but has again stopped short of calling for a quick upswing.
Former Australian Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd breached the service's code of conduct by emailing research about government enterprise agreements to a free-market think tank, a high-level inquiry has found.
Union calls for a return to industry-wide bargaining to boost workers' earnings have won the backing of the OECD, which says in its annual global employment report that negotiations across industry sectors can lead to "lower wage inequality".
