Australia's Minimum Wage Has Been Increased To Help Country's Lowest Paid Workers

Australia's Fair Work Commission has announced the country's national minimum wage will be increased.

The 2.5 per cent rise will help Australia's lowest paid workers and will end up being an extra $18.80 a week in their pockets.

The pay increase brings the minimum hourly rate to $20.33, or $772.60 per week for full-time workers.

Fair Work Commission president Justice Iain Ross said it was only fair after the crushing year that was 2020.

"There was a broad consensus in the submissions before us that the current performance of the economy has exceeded expectations and that the economic recovery is well underway," he said while explaining the decision.

According to AAP, this decision will benefit the more than two million people who are on award rates of minimum pay for their industry. There. are also nearly 200,000 people who receive the national base wage.

It's not all good news though.

People who work in aviation, fitness, tourism and parts of retail and event sectors will have to wait until the beginning of November until the pay rise comes into effect. Other retail workers on award conditions will see their increase from September 1.

The pay rise has been welcomed by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, however they had been pushing for a 3.5 per cent rise. That would have translated to an extra $26 per week.

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said the Morrison government chose 2.5 per cent because it could have affected small business. She has branded the offer from the Fair Work Commission 'extremely disappointing'.

"Especially those who have worked throughout the pandemic and whose employers have posted record profits," she said in a statement.

The Centre for Future Work's director Jim Stanford added that the rise was well below what would be an average pay increase.

He told the ABC: "It's at the very low end of what's needed for Australia's economy. Consumers have done all the heavy lifting in the recovery, and they can't keep doing that unless they get a decent wage increase in their pocket."

On the other side of the debate, the Australian Industry Group was asking the Commission to not offer a pay rise of anything more than 1.1 per cent, or $8.29 a week.

Last year, the national minimum wage increased by 1.75 per cent to $753.80 a week, or $19.84 an hour.

Featured Image Credit: Pixabay

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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