Overview
- The Fair Work Commission announced the 4.75% increase on Tuesday, June 2, which takes effect from July 1 and lifts the national minimum to $26.44 an hour and $1,004.90 a week.
- The ruling changes modern award rates for about 2.8 million workers and creates a temporary entry-level classification that applies for up to six months to roughly 100,000 of the very lowest-paid.
- Award-reliant employees are disproportionately female and more likely to work part-time or casual hours, with large concentrations in hospitality, health and social care, retail, and administrative services.
- Unions welcomed the above-inflation rise as relief for low-paid households while employer groups and several economists warned the move will add to business cost pressures and could feed higher consumer prices.
- Officials said the Commission balanced competing submissions from unions, business and the government and judged it was not 'practicable or responsible' to close the multi-year real-wage gap fully given current economic uncertainty.