Enterprise agreements data shows wage growth remains steady despite some solid increases
The average wage growth in enterprise agreements shows that workers continue to see their real wages fall.
Ever since inflation began to rise strongly last year, we have been waiting for wage growth to rise as well. The fortnightly enterprise agreements data is the most current data on wage growth and thus far it has shown little signs that wages are picking up to any extent that would suggest wages are now driving prices.
The latest EBAs lodged this fortnight with the Fair Work Commission have an average annual wage increase of 4.0%. This is the first time in 3 months that the fortnightly average increase is 4.-0% or more. However, while this is positive news for those workers, unfortunately, the number of workers covered by these rises is rather small.
Only 14,026 workers were covered by agreements lodged in the past fortnight, well below the more than 83,000 who were covered by agreements lodged in the previous two periods.
It is worth noting of course that even a 4.0% wage rise remains well below inflation.
The figures highlight that while some workers are now receiving fair rewards for their work and also to counter the rise in prices driven mostly by increased profits, overall wage growth remains muted and should do nothing to cause the Reserve Bank to raise rates any further.
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