Once a year, the Minimum Wage Panel assesses what the minimum wage should be for the lowest-paid workers in Australia. Its decision? From July 1, the minimum wage will go up by 45 cents an hour. Don’t drink it all at once.
Picture by Jeremy Keith
Here’s the more detailed explanation from Fair Work Australia:
The national minimum wage will be $606.40 per week or $15.96 per hour. The hourly rate has been calculated on the basis of a 38 hour week for a full-time employee. This constitutes an increase of $17.10 per week or 45 cents per hour.
45 cents an hour is, clearly, not a large amount. But that doesn’t mean the move will be popular with some employer groups. The Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA) argued that the minimum wage should go up by less than half that amount: just $8 a week. This is, I guess, part of the association’s attempts to compete with overseas retailers.
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