The RBA is continuing to warn about the dangers of a wage-price spiral, saying the chances of it have declined, but could rise again if the FWC awards a "large" minimum rise this year or government employers ease or drop pay caps.
The Productivity Commission says a review of the Albanese Government's new multi-employer bargaining measures should consider amending the Competition and Consumer Act so the ACCC can play a role.
The Productivity Commission has today recommended the Albanese Government strip back the modern awards objective to seven points and establish an independent dispute resolution mechanism within the FWC for platform workers.
The Albanese Government is not attracted to "scorched earth" IR policies to address Australia's productivity challenges, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said today, ahead of tomorrow's tabling of the final report of the Productivity Commission's productivity inquiry.
The one in every six workers who took up the Morrison Government's invitation to withdraw their super during the pandemic mostly took the maximum $20,000 or their whole account balance, tended to spend the windfall on gambling and consumer items, and cut their retirement income by $120,000 in today's dollars, according to a new academic study.
Multi-year enterprise agreements, flaws in the "standard" Wage Price Index measure and public sector pay caps partially explain recent low wages growth, which would otherwise have been up to one percentage point higher last year, according to new university analysis.
Agreements filed with the FWC for approval in the first half of February delivered an average pay rise of 3.1% a year, according to "real-time" data released this morning.
Economy-wide labour costs have risen modestly in the December quarter as workers' share of income maintains its rebound from record lows, according to ABS national accounts data released today.
Private sector rates of pay increased to 3.6% annually in the December quarter, up from 3.4% in the previous three-month period, according to the ABS, but relatively low public sector rises have restricted the economy-wide movement to 3.3%.
