Actu Stakes Its $26 Claim
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday March 12, 2008
The ACTU will seek a $26-a-week wage rise for 1.5 million workers, an increase higher than inflation, at a time when the Federal Government is appealing for wage restraint.
The ACTU secretary, Jeff Lawrence, will today announce that the $26 claim will be lodged with the Fair Pay Commission, which is carrying out its annual review of minimum wages. If granted, the increase would represent a 5 per cent pay rise for 100,000 workers on the basic federal minimum wage of $522.12 a week, compared with the annual inflation rate of 3 per cent. The claim would be worth 4.2 per cent for tradespeople on minimum pay scales who are now on $615.98 a week. But Mr Lawrence will use a speech in Canberra today to defend the need for real wage rises for the low-paid despite inflationary pressures in the economy, saying the claim would barely meet cost-of-living pressures on working families.He will argue that the real wage rates of 1 million of the 1.5 million workers relying on minimum wage rates have fallen by up to $43.67 a week in the past three years after increases in consumer prices. The ACTU argues a $26 increase for those on minimum pay would have a negligible impact on inflation.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald