With the Fair Work Commission’s decision to increase the national minimum wage by 4.75%, Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) is calling for further action to support people doing it tough, as well as the frontline community services helping them.
“People are under severe pressure from interest rate rises, rent increases, higher fuel costs, and growing economic uncertainty due to the conflict in the Middle East,” said ACOSS Acting CEO Edwina MacDonald.
The Guardian reports, ‘Nearly 3 million workers will receive a 4.75% pay rise, while about 100,000 of the country’s lowest paid will receive a higher 6% increase, after the Fair Work Commission handed down its annual minimum wage decision’.
‘Announcing the 4.75% decision on Tuesday morning applicable to the roughly 2.8 million workers on award wages, the Fair Work Commission’s president, Justice Adam Hatcher, announced that the lowest ongoing wage rate for employees would climb from nearly $24.95 an hour, to $26.44 – a lift of just under 6%’.
ACOSS Acting CEO Edwina MacDonald said, “The Fair Work Commission’s decision will help ease the pressure on low-paid workers to cover their basic living costs such as rent, food, and transport”.
“However, far more government action is needed to reverse the decade-long stagnation of living standards endured as wages and incomes have failed to keep pace with costs.
“Lifting incomes for people in low paid work and those who are unemployed is all the more important when unemployment is rising. Minimum wage increases have little or no impact on employment and inflation as they only go directly to workers paid under awards.
“The government must also raise the rate of JobSeeker and related payments to levels that allow people to cover the basics and live decently.”
ACOSS is also calling on the federal government to provide financial assistance to community sector organisations to fully cover the increasing costs of service delivery, including wages, without being forced to sacrifice staffing capacity or service quality.
“The community sector provides essential services to people across the country in financial distress, disadvantage and hardship. We’ve seen sharp increases in community demand and our members have already had to grapple with increased fuel costs and other supply chain disruptions in recent months. The government must provide immediate and ongoing financial relief to these vital frontline services,” said Ms MacDonald.
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