Aussie PM Albanese: High and rising inflation and weak wages growth are reducing real wages
|"New Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made a submission to the country’s labor watchdog, proposing to lift minimum wages by more than the inflation rate in a bid to fulfill one of his key election promises," said Bloomberg on early Friday morning in Europe.
The news quotes Aussie PM Albanese’s statement published recently as, “High and rising inflation and weak wages growth are reducing real wages across the economy and creating cost-of-living pressures for Australia’s low-paid workers.”
Key quotes (Source: Bloomberg)
The government does not want to see Australian workers go backwards; in particular, those workers on low rates of pay who are experiencing the worst impacts of inflation and have the least capacity to draw on savings.
Australia’s Fair Work Commission will announce its annual wage review later this month. The current national minimum wage is A$20.33 ($14.06) per hour. During his pre-election campaign last month, Albanese had said a 5.1% increase would be equal to just $1 an hour or “two cups a coffee” a day.
Albanese said an increase in minimum wages would also complement his government’s effort to help close the national gender pay gap of 22.8%.
AUD/USD remains unmoved amid pre-NFP trading lull
Markets paid a little heed to the news as AUD/USD stays sidelined near 0.7255-50, recently bouncing off daily lows. The reason could be well-linked to the anxiety ahead of the key US jobs report.
Read: AUD/USD retreats from monthly top to 0.7250 on mixed Aussie data, sentiment ahead of US NFP
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