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Government on minimum wage rising with inflation

Remember at the last election campaign when Anthony Albanese answered “absolutely” to a question on whether he wanted to see the minimum wage raise inline with inflation (which was then 5.1%).

The government language hasn’t been quite so strong when it comes to the Fair Work Commission considerations this time around. This is partly because Labor is now the government and the FWC is independent. And it is also partly because with inflation, all of these things have become a lot more tricky.

How tricky? Where here is the whole transcript between Patricia Karvelas and Katy Gallagher this morning, where the finance minister talked around the fact that she was not saying anything:

PK: Now back home, there’s reporting the major unions will make submissions to the Fair Work Commission to increase the minimum wage and award wages by more than 7% to match inflation. Last year, you supported a 5% minimum wage increase to match inflation – should it be bumped up again?

KG: We’ll be making a submission to the annual wage review in the next few weeks, I think it’s required but …

PK: Do you think 7% seems reasonable?

KG: Well, I’ll leave that for the unions. We, last year, didn’t put a pay figure on it. I think we made the argument that, particularly low-paid workers, you know, we wouldn’t want to see them go backwards, but we left it to the Commission.

PK: So, let me put this to you. Do you still not, is that your position, that you don’t want to see them go backwards?

KG: We would want to make, I think for, particularly for low-income workers, we want to make sure that, you know, they are getting sustainable and affordable pay rises. And you’ll see our submission provided through that wage case in the next couple of weeks.

PK: So, I’m gonna ask it again, politely. Will you put in a submission that says that they shouldn’t go backwards?

KG: Well, we’re currently finalising that submission, Patricia so …

PK: So you’re not wedded to that language?

KG: Well, no, I think we’ve made it clear since coming into government that we want to see wages moving, we have been particularly concerned about the lowest paid. And, of course, with the cost of living pressures that are on people now, that has an impact. What their wage increase has, has an impact on their living standards. So you will see a submission from us that goes through the detail about you know, what we see as the government as important, and then the Fair Work Commission makes the decision. But we didn’t put a figure on it last year. I don’t expect we will put a figure on it this year.

PK: No, but you did talk about not going backwards, and that means keeping up with inflation. So that’s my key question. Do you think you should keep up with inflation for this lowest for these lowest-paid workers?

KG: We want to see low-income workers get a good pay rise, you’ll see our submission. The submission hasn’t been finalised, PK. I think it’s fair that we are able to finalise that submission through our processes, and then …

PK: It does seem like a different, with respect, minister, it sounds like a different position to the one that was taken during the election campaign, where the prime minister use that word, ‘absolutely’, about them not going backwards.

KG: Well, we will finalise our submission. I mean, in a unusual or difficult position where that submission hasn’t been finalised. We support wage increases, particularly for low-income workers. You’ve seen that since the beginning of this government, you won’t see that change. We will continue to argue for that. But the final, the submission needs to be finalised and go through our processes.