Despite last week’s decision by the Fair Work Commission to push up the national minimum wage by 5.2 percent, millions of Australians, in all parts of the country, will continue to live in poverty and on survival wages. The facts are that the Commission’s decision takes the minimum wage from $772 a week to $812, an increase of $5.70 a day, not a fortune but better than nothing.
And while the decision is welcome and turns around a decade of real wage cuts under the Coalition Government, we are still living in society that is divided economically, culturally and very much in terms of opportunities.
Make no mistake, workers on low incomes and our nation’s most under privileged will continue to struggle to make ends meet, they will struggle to pay the rent, to put food on the table, to cover health costs and to ensure their kids get the same opportunities as the rest of their classmates.
This is drawn into stark relief by the simple fact that the minimum wage continues to be around 20 per cent lower than the poverty line, which The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research has set at $1091 for a family of four with one working adult. In what world do we think it is appropriate for the minimum wage to be below the poverty line for the average family?
Around 3 million working people and their families live in poverty, with roughly a third of people in poverty relying on wages as their main source of income.
One hundred and ten years ago Australia and New Zealand were the first two countries in the world to establish minimum wages. But this has not guaranteed workers a quality standard of living.
'The International Monetary Fund recently found Australia is among the countries that have experienced the most rapid increase in income inequality in recent decades.'
Cuts in penalty rates, the expansion of casual work and temporary jobs and the erosion of job security have all undermined working life in contemporary Australia. We are now in the situation where income inequality between the highest and the lowest paid is at a 70-year high.
The International Monetary Fund recently found Australia is among the countries that have experienced the most rapid increase in income inequality in recent decades.
This isn’t just about families struggling. The ACTU suggests that if this doesn’t change Australia will be a ‘fully Americanised society of high