‘..While the national minimum wage covers a very small proportion of the workforce, about 21 per cent of all employees in Australia are paid at a minimum award rate, amounting to almost 2.8 million people’
That’s a lot higher than I thought it would be. I wouldn’t say 1 in 5 workers earning minimum wage is ‘a very small proportion’
The minimum award rate is a different category to the minimum wage, and most lower paid jobs fall under one award or another. It's basically the same outcome but that distinction is why they're saying the national minimum wage covers a very small proportion.
Actually awesome. I feel like Labor has gone full "fuck it we ball" because the opposition is going to shriek no matter what they do
The government doesn't determine the amount of the annual wage review. An independent panel of the Fair Work Commission does.
Yes, but it bears noting that the "independent" FWC presidents are appointed by the government of the day.
It's why under the Liberals they reduced Sunday penalty rates to Saturday rates for hospo workers.
It's not independent, really, and it's kinda annoying that they keep hyping it up to be.
It's pretty shoddy as a regulator, considering my award literally says (paraphrased) "refer to section 62 of the act" under what counts as a reasonable request for overtime.
And so, we all work "reasonable hours of overtime" every single week.
Like, THAT WAS YOUR JOB FWC, ffs.
Labor put through a pretty milquetoast bill (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates Bill 2025) that will fix this eventually, but it only kicks in whenever the FWC get around to updating your award (which is on a 3 year cycle, I believe).
Kinda annoying, because they cited the "independent" nature of the FWC when justifying their approach, and they could have just legislated it pretty easily.
That, and thanks to Labor and the Accords, it has the power to rule your strike illegal.
Anyway, thanks for reading my rant - the FWC is only sort of independent.
It's not independent, really, and it's kinda annoying that they keep hyping it up to be.
similarly the RBA and a plethora of other QANGO's.
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