FWC President Adam Hatcher has conceded the tribunal can juggle only so many balls, placing on ice its scrutiny of potential gender bias in awards' overtime provisions after the publication of an internal research paper.
The Albanese Government should force companies to share productivity gains with employees via higher pay rises, extra leave or shorter hours, according to research using the retail sector to challenge "conventional wisdom" that productivity growth flows through to workers.
New university research says "intermediaries" play a crucial role in holding employers to account under gender pay gap reporting regimes such as Australia's, that unlike Europe's, don't require laggards to take corrective measures.
The first public policy changes to boost workers' power in more than 30 years - under the Albanese Government - have coincided with an increase in nominal and real wages and a rise in workers' share of the fruits of the economy, according to the Centre for Future Work's David Peetz.
Growth in private sector rates of pay is continuing to ease, falling from 3.6% a year in trend terms to 3.3%, while public sector growth has also dropped, according to the ABS.
Private sector bargained pay rises have fallen below 4%, while the public sector has recorded the slowest growth in 18 months, according to new DEWR data.
In a bid to further reduce the gender pay gap, the Albanese Government has introduced a Bill that will require employers with 500 or more workers to set new gender equality targets, with their progress publicly available on the WGEA website and compliance required to be eligible for Government contracts.
