Australia’s Minimum Wage Has Been Increased to Help Low-Income Workers

It’s going up by 2.5 per cent.

Since early 2020, most of Australia has had it pretty tough financially, no thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting recession.

Fortunately, in good news for low-wage earners, the Fair Work Commission has recently announced that Australia’s national minimum wage is getting a boost.

The new 2.5 per cent increase will bring the minimum hourly rate to $20.33 per hour or $772.60 per week for full-time workers, giving low-income workers an extra $18.80 each week, which is not too shabby.

The Fair Work Commission President Justice Iain Ross explained that due to the rough time Aussies had last year, it was only fair.

"There was a broad consensus in the submissions before us that the current performance of the economy has exceeded expectations and that the economic recovery is well underway," he said.

Most workers that will receive that boost work in retail, food, and accommodation—sectors that completely shut down and let go of employees during COVID-19 lockdowns.

And if we’re being honest, a lot of those employees are likely young Aussies and students.

More than 2 million people in Australia will benefit from the wage increase, however, it’s not all good news.

Unfortunately, workers in fitness, tourism, aviation, parts of retail and events will have to wait until November to see the rise on their pay slips.

Everyone else will see the increase from 1 September.

While 2.5 per cent is great news considering the previous minimum wage increase was 1.75 per cent, it’s not quite what trade unions were hoping for.

As seen by the Harvey Norman protests earlier in the month, most minimum wage employees and their representative unions want an increase of at least 3.5 per cent.

On the other hand, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry was previously arguing for an increase of only 1.1 per cent, describing the higher increase as “premature and irresponsible.”

On either side of the coin, whether you think the rise is too much or not quite enough, it is positive news for people needing a little bit of extra money to get by every week.

Header Image: Asanka Ratnayake via Getty Images