Anthony Albanese announces support for minimum wage increase as election campaign heats up

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will announce, Wednesday, that the Labor will support an increase in real wages for the low workers of Australia.

This is not a binding policy commitment and does not mean that the salary increase is guaranteed, if Mr. Albanese retains power.

Rather, work is intended to make a presentation to the Labor Commission just on Wednesday, which recommends “an economically sustainable real salary increase” for the minimum wages of Australia and the minimum wage.

The distinction here, of the previous work presentations, is that in the past he pressed so that the real wages of such workers do not retreate. Now he is changing to advocate an increase.

Real wages are salary adjusted by inflation, which means that if your salary increases, but the cost of living increases faster, your real salary has fallen.

The position of the Labor, in their presentation to the fair work, is that any increase in minimum and award wages must be consistent, which means contingent, in the inflation that returns “sustainably” to the objective band of the RBA.

“The work affirms that this result is fair and economically responsible,” writes the party in its presentation to the commission.

“The work believes that workers should move forward with a real salary increase. Despite the greatest global uncertainty and volatility, the Australian economy has folded a corner. Inflation is now less than a third of its peak, unemployment remains low, there are more than one million additional people used than in May 202, and interest rates have begun to fall.

“Economic growth was recovered at the end of last year and the private sector is now a key taxpayer to growth. It is important to highlight that the growth of real wages has now returned and it is forecast to continue in 2024-25 and 2025-26.

“A soft landing in our economy seems increasingly likely. While the global economy is uncertain and Australians are still under pressure, work has achieved substantial progress by changing the economy.”

Submission continues along the same lines, emphasizing the Albanese government “focuses on ending the fight against inflation, providing relief responsible for the cost of living and building a stronger economy and a stronger budget.”

But it also points out some substantive and relevant statistics.

He points out that some 2.9 million Australian workers have their salary established by an award, and that the current national minimum wage is $ 24.10 per hour.

“The low workers and their families are particularly affected by the cost of living pressures, because they generally have limited liquid assets shock absorbers to resort to cover the growing costs and are less capable of dealing with unexpected expenses,” says the presentation.

“The workers dependent on the awards, many of which are under payment, are more likely to be women, informally employed, working part -time and young people.

“About 20 percent of the lowest paid employees foresee financial dependent children and almost 40 percent have a mortgage.”

The argument is that increasing real wages for low workers will help about three million people, such as cleaners, retail workers and early childhood educators.

“During the last campaign, while traveling in the country, they asked me if I supported a salary increase for the low workers. I said absolutely,” Albanese said.

“The Liberal Party said that this would destroy the economy. Since then, we have seen that wages rose, inflation decreases and interest rates begin to fall.

“This campaign will be advocated again because workers obtain a salary increase so as not only to help them deal with today’s pressures, but to advance in the future.

“Only work has a plan to build the future of Australia.”

“Our economic plan is about ensuring that Australians win more and keep more than they win,” said Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

“Increasing wages, reducing taxes for each taxpayer and creating more jobs are a central part of our efforts to help Australians with the cost of living.

“The most important thing that is brought on the road to the highest wages for Australians is a coalition government led by Peter Dutton that will increase taxes and block the lowest wages for workers.

“The election in this election is between a Labor Government that has been creating jobs, causing salaries to move again, rebuild living standards and implement the help of responsible living cost compared to a coalition that wants Australians to work more for less.”