Australia / Minimum wage to rise by $15.80 a week

Australia’s 1.5 million lowest-paid workers will get a modest $15.80 a week pay rise that has pleased no one.

Business groups and unions say the increase is a blow to small and medium-sized businesses and workers alike, with the ACTU saying it amounts to $1.80 a day or a loaf of bread.

The Fair Work Commission on Monday awarded a modest increase in the minimum wage, less than last year’s $17.10 a week pay rise and just over half the $30 sought by unions.

The 2.6 per cent increase barely covers the rise in the cost of living, ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said.

“The decision that has come out of the Fair Work Commission today is a kick in the guts to 1.5 million low-paid workers and their families across this country,” he told reporters.

Part-time cleaner Marie Angrilli said the pay rise would go nowhere near covering her expenses.

“It is a struggle to pay gas, electricity, come to work every day, pay petrol,” the 64-year-old said.

“One-dollar-eighty a day doesn’t really go anywhere for me.”

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which wanted any increase limited to $5.80 a week, labelled the rise excessive.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Minimum wage to rise by $15.80 a week | World news | guardian.co.uk.