Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe has today added a new reason to his long list of why employers are not lifting wages - the "laser-like focus on costs" that has become the "predominant mindset" of many businesses.
Victoria's Andrews Labor Government has allocated $9.6 million to develop a new "fast track model" for hearing wage theft cases in the State's Magistrates' Court.
The ACTU's latest submission to the FWC's minimum wage panel has seized on Federal Budget forecasts that wage growth will lag behind inflation until 2024-25, arguing it is a "mystery" who else has the power to influence that trajectory.
The ANMF has filed a work value application seeking a 25% increase for nurses, nursing assistants and personal care workers in residential and home-based aged care after the FWC refused to delay the HSU's work value case to provide more time for collaboration.
The ABS has delivered a small boost to hopes that wages growth might exceed restrained government projections after today's quarterly figures showed an annual lift of 1.5% across the economy.
The RBA has slightly raised its wage growth forecast, noting that it will almost entirely be driven by the private sector as public sector wage caps remain in effect.
Virgin cabin crew have decisively voted up a new deal after trouncing a previous offer, with the FAAA laying out expectations the reborn airline must reward workers for their "sacrifice" when it recovers from the pandemic's hit to its operations.
In a setback for unions fighting a mooted 1.5% pay cap for NSW public servants, the state's Court of Appeal has upheld a decision affirming a 0.3% increase in the 2020-21 financial year, in part because investing in infrastructure would be better than wages in stimulating the economy during the pandemic.
FWC seeks to identify incidence of workplace FDV policies; Casual terms review timetable pushed back; and AiG calls for reduction in minimum pay delays for COVID-hit sectors.
Employer bodies are asking the FWC's minimum way panel to freeze minimum rates, limit any rises to CPI or to follow last year's precedent and postpone any increases.
