Treasurer Jim Chalmers says that inflation is likely to peak at 7.75% in the December quarter then decline over the next two years, while real wage rises will return next financial year, but the ACTU says the forecast only "deepens" the pay crisis, with the resumption of growth in mid-2024 meaning workers will have suffered four years of going backwards.
NSW unions have called on the Perrottet Coalition Government to loosen the State's public sector pay cap after a Queensland offer to nurses that will deliver 11% in pay rises over three years plus "cost of living top-up payments" of up to 3% a year.
A UK national living wage review has found that while the NLW's introduction has not caused job losses, the expected productivity gains have failed to materialise.
In the wake of the RBA governor's warning about the risks of a wage-price spiral, new A-G's department data shows that bargained pay rises are flatlining at 2.7% a year in the private sector, rising at little more than half the 5.1% rate of headline consumer price inflation.
Former ACTU secretary and RBA director Bill Kelty has thrown his weight behind appointing someone with a union background to the Reserve Bank board, saying in the wake of claims about its limited perspectives that the central bank has not understood how wages operate "for a long time".
The UK Low Pay Commission has increased its wage floor by 6.6% to £9.50 ($16.80) as part of its plan to raise the minimum to two-thirds of median earnings by 2024.
Unions have today told the FWC's minimum wage panel that their biggest concern is that low-paid workers will go "further backwards" in the coming year due to continuing inflation and price increases.
Consumer prices are now rising at more than double the pace of private sector rates of pay excluding bonuses, which increased by 2.4% annually in the March quarter, unchanged from the December quarter, according to the ABS.
