WAGES CONTINUE TO FLATLINE

 The June 2017 quarter national accounts released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that average compensation per employee fell 0.1 per cent. 

 

The Turnbull Government is presiding over an economy where wages growth remains at record lows, and average compensation for each employee in the economy went backwards this quarter. Yet, this Liberal Government wants to give a $65 billion tax cut to big business, while raising taxes for over 7 million workers and cutting the penalty rates of low paid workers. 

 

The Turnbull Government is incapable of addressing rising cost of living pressures as workers’ debts and every day costs rise, but their wages flatline.

 

Turnbull and his government cannot seriously try to continue to deny the inequality which hardworking Australians are experiencing every day.  

 

Australian families are facing a nasty cocktail of rising costs and electricity prices, declining real incomes, underemployment around record highs and cuts to penalty rates.

 

Labor’s concerns about low wages growth are – unfortunately – well founded, with the Reserve Bank Governor today saying wages will remain low “for a while yet”. 

 

Without a doubt, the dwindling bargaining power of workers and their representatives has played a central role in subdued wages growth and rising inequality.   

 

Yet the Turnbull Government is bereft of a plan to deal with the inequality we are seeing in today’s labour market – the flat wage growth, the proliferation of insecure work, the low share of GDP accruing to employees, and the relative impoverishment of low skilled workers.

 

Turnbull has no plan other than to continue his ideological attack on workers and their unions.

 

Just how out of touch can this Government get?

 

Under the Turnbull government we are headed to a low-wage, easy-to-hire, easy-to-fire society.