Real wages have grown more in the last twelve months – than under the entire nine years of Coalition government

Today’s Wage Price Index figures reveal that wages grew at an annual rate of 3.2 per cent in the year to December 2024.

The Wage Price Index data shows that real wages have grown by 0.8 per cent in the last year, more than the entire real wages growth under nine years of Coalition governments.

The wage growth has been driven by boosts in minimum and award wages, the care economy and workers exercising their new collective bargaining rights to negotiate higher wages.

However, the ACTU warns this wages turnaround is at risk of being reversed if a Dutton Government is elected, as it has vowed to reverse the wage-boosting rights that have delivered these gains.

New ACTU analysis shows that if wages had continued growing at the slow rate seen under the Coalition, the average Australian worker would experience a pay cut of $3100 a year. Annual wage growth now sits at 3.2 per cent, compared to average annual wage growth of 2.2 per cent under Coalition governments from 2013 to 2022.

The Coalition has committed to abolishing Same Job Same Pay rights, better collective bargaining rights, and the Right to Disconnect all of which are delivering significant pay rises for workers.

The Coalition also refused to rule out penalty rate cuts if it wins government, following a Fair Work Commission application to abolish penalty rates for retail workers earning more than $53,670 a year. Backed by Australia’s largest retailers including Coles and Woolworths, the precedent could strip take-home pay for an estimated one million Australians working in retail, hospitality, healthcare, fast food and administration.

Quotes attributable to ACTU President Michele O’Neil:

“Workers pay packets in the last 12 months are finally getting ahead of prices and the result is real wages have gone up more in the last year than they did over the entire nine years that Peter Dutton was last in government.

“Wages don’t just go up by accident – they are the result of campaigns by union members and the Albanese Government making it easier for working Australians to collectively bargain for pay rises, stopping big business wage cutting schemes and lifting the pay of some of the lowest paid workers in Australia.

“Now that people have more work rights and wages are moving, Peter Dutton and his big business mates like Gina Rinehart want to undo that progress. Without these new rights, the average Australian would have their pay cut by $3100, which would be devastating to people’s cost-of-living.

“Peter Dutton has a record of doing the job of big business and voted eight times in Parliament to slash Australians’ penalty rates. It is clear his plan, if he were to win government, is to continue to support big business over working Australians.

“Handing more power to big business to cut wages will worsen cost-of-living pressures, particularly for Australians living in our outer suburbs and regions who rely on their award wages to keep up with costs. They can’t afford to go backwards under Peter Dutton and the Coalition.”

ENDS

NOTE:

The ACTU calculation is based on a worker’s average full-time weekly earnings of $1,769.80 in May 2022 (ABS Average Weekly Earnings – May 2022). The Albanese Government was elected on 23 May 2022.  

If those wages had grown by just 2.2 per cent per year instead of the actual average growth rate of 3.7 per cent, then that worker would experience a pay cut of $3,100.