General

Federal Election information

Workchoices sends real wages backwards

A new ACTU analysis shows that the award wages for more than a million low paid workers have gone backwards by up to $15.67 a week -- or $814 a year -- in real terms under the Howard Govt's Work Choices.

The analysis shows that the pay rise that workers reliant on award minimum wages got in October by the Howard Government's Fair Pay Commission did not meet increases in the cost of living.

Interest rates and rents are going up, petrol is up, food and other basics are all going up but the living standards of working families are going backwards as a result of Work Choices said the ACTU.

This is another sign that Work Choices is taking Australia down the United States path of large numbers of workers earning poverty-level wages and forced to survive on tips said ACTU President Sharan Burrow.

Ms Burrow said:

"These figures show the measly pay rise that low paid award workers got last month from the Howard Govt's wage setting body was not enough to cover rising housing costs, petrol, food and other basics.

"The Fair Pay Commission is giving John Howard and Peter Costello exactly what they wanted -- reduced wages -- but this is at the expense of lower living standards for working families.

"John Howard knew that Work Choices would put downward pressure on workers' wages but he went ahead with his extreme IR laws anyway.

"This week John Howard also confirmed that if he is re-elected he will go further with Work Choices and cut the award safety net. He also refused to rule out changes to the 'fairness test' after the election.

"John Howard and Peter Costello cannot be trusted -- they will go further on industrial relations and make it even harder for workers if they are re-elected," said Ms Burrow.

100 year anniversary of 'Harvester' minimum wage decision this week
The 100 year anniversary of the first minimum wage decision on Thursday 8 November is a timely reminder for Australian workers of the damaging effects of Work Choices said the ACTU.

In response to a union pay claim in 1907 Justice Higgins of the Industrial Relations Commission ruled that employees deserved a wage guaranteeing them a standard of living reasonable for "a human being in a civilised community". Higgins set a minimum wage for unskilled workers of around $1.40 a week as "enough to support the wage earner in reasonable and frugal comfort".

The minimum wage is now $27,150 a year -- $522.12 a week or $13.74 an hour.

"The legal requirement for a minimum wage, along with Australia's unique independent umpire and award safety net have been major features of Australia's IR system for the past 100 years until they were overturned by the introduction of the Howard Govt's unfair Work Choices laws," said Ms Burrow.

Further information:

Minimum award wages - real change Dec 06 to Oct 2007
CPI rose 2.0% over the ten month period from the Fair Pay Commission's last pay rise in December 2006 to its most recent rise in October 2007. In real terms, the table below shows that workers on the federal Minimum Wage (C14) had a real pay increase of just 6 cents a week -- effectively a wage freeze in real terms. All other minimum award workers received a real pay cut - from 28 cents a week to as much as $15.67 a week. As there are only about 100,000 workers on the FMW (C14), this shows that around 1.1 million award workers on C13 and above, received a real pay cut.

© 2001 Community & Public Sector Union - State Public Services Federation (CPSU-SPSF) - National Office

http://www.cpsu-spsf.asn.au/latest_news/general/20071105_wages.html
Last Modified: 05 Nov 2007