Anaemic wage growth has been a feature of the Australian economy since at least 2012. This has been the deliberate result of Government policy architecture as outline by the McKell Institute in “Stuck in neutral: The Policy Architecture Driving Slow Wage Growth in Australia”. These policies include:
• Support for a reduction in penalty rates. • Overseeing a surge in work visas for low-paid temporary migrant workers. • Inaction on wage theft and underpayment. • Opposition to increases in minimum wages. • Public sector wage freezes. • Changes in the composition of the Fair Work Commission (FWC). • Allowing a sharp expansion of the gig economy without adequate regulation.
The deliberate policies that put downward pressure on wages prevented workers from accumulating larger wages even through a period of steady economic growth. Instead, it left workers exposed to the onset of inflation, with little to no buffer, to prevent declining real wages and living standards."
IN SHORT, WAGE GROWTH WAS DELIBERATLY PUT IN NEUTRAL AND WHEN INFLATION REEMERGED REAL WAGES WENT SOUTH.
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