The release of the March Wage Price Index confirms what a horror year it has been for workers. While inflation in the past 12 months rose 5.1%, wages grew just 2.4%. Even worse, in the past year the price of non-discretionary items rose 6.6%, meaning for those on low wages, who spend more of their incomes on essential items, real wages would have fallen even more than the 2.6% average fall.
Labour market policy director, Greg Jericho notes in his Guardian Australia column that the fall in real wages has been the worst since the introduction of the GST and in the first 3 months of this year real wages fell 1.5%.
So steep has been the fall that real wages are now back essentially to where they were at the time of the September 2013 election.
The fall highlights that talk about Australia having recovered from the pandemic ignores the most basic aspect of the economy – the living standards of workers from their wages.
The fall is such that even with the RBA’s estimates of solid wage growth recovery over the next two years, should Australia return to pre-pandemic trend real wages growth, it would take till 2031 to recover workers purchasing power back to the levels of 2020.
That would we a lost decade of living standards.
Between the Lines Newsletter
The biggest stories and the best analysis from the team at the Australia Institute, delivered to your inbox every fortnight.
You might also like
“Right to Disconnect” Essential as Devices Intrude Into Workers’ Lives
Australia’s Parliament is set to pass a new set of reforms to the Fair Work Act and other labour laws, that would enshrine certain protections for workers against being contacted or ordered to perform work outside of normal working hours. This “Right to Disconnect” is an important step in limiting the steady encroachment of work
More loopholes to close on insecure work … and a new right to disconnect from work
Late yesterday the final part 2 of the government’s Closing Loopholes industrial relations bill was passed by the Senate.
Fixing the work and care crisis means tackling insecure and unpredictable work
The Fair Work Commission is examining how to reduce insecurity and unpredictability in part-time and casual work to help employees better balance work and care. The Commission is reviewing modern awards that set out terms and conditions of employment for many working Australians to consider how workplace relations settings in awards impact on work and