It laughs at Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s claim in the April budget – and Scott Morrison’s claim in the election campaign – to have returned the economy to “strong growth”, which will roll on for a decade without missing a beat.
Why is the immediate outlook for the economy so weak and uncertain? Not primarily because of any great threat from abroad – though a flare-up in Donald Trump’s trade war with China could certainly make things worse – but primarily because of one big and well-known problem inside our economy: five years of weak growth in wages.
Tag: Wages
Universities have become institutions whose primary aim is to make money, in particular by attracting more high paying overseas students than their competitors and cutting back on labor costs of both academic staff and support services.
Source: Universities increase profits at low-paid workers’ expense
Unions will campaign ahead of this year’s state election for the Andrews government to make ‘wage theft’ a crime and punishable by up to 10 years in jail.
The move by the Victorian Trades Hall Council and its Young Workers Centre is part of a growing legislative push in Australia to try to turn the deliberate underpayment of wages into a criminal offence.
Fact
Over recent decades in Australia union membership has fallen from 40% of the workforce in 1990 to 15% in 2016 and so unions might seem less relevant in making a difference to what we earn. But our research finds that union members do earn higher wages per hour than non-union members.
via Why union members earn higher wages than their non-union colleagues
ACTU secretary Sally McManus has a surprising ally in one of the world’s most powerful bankers in her fight against pay cuts
It’s time Australia stops profiting from the free labour of Aboriginal people, writes Celeste Liddle.
Source: The stolen wages that continue to hold indigenous Australians back
If the China-Australia free trade agreement proceeds without labour market protections, the Turnbull government will “effectively surrender autonomy over its migration laws” and invite a wave of Chinese workers into Australia, driving down local wages and conditions, a new report has found.
Source: China free trade agreement to invite wave of Chinese workers, drive down wages: report
