Agreements filed with the FWC for approval in the first half of February delivered an average pay rise of 3.1% a year, according to "real-time" data released this morning.
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has today argued for "responsible and sustainable" wage increases to ease cost of living pressures, as he emerged from an address to the ACTU's national executive in Melbourne.
As inflation continues to rise at about 7%, annual wage increases have dropped to just 2.2% in the latest fortnightly batch of "real-time" enterprise deals analysed by the FWC, due to health and welfare agreements paying an average of 2.1% a year.
Enterprise agreements filed with the FWC in the fortnight to October 21 paid average annualised wage increases of 3.5%, substantially outpacing the 2.8% rises in DEWR's data for June quarter agreements but well below the 7.3% rate of consumer price inflation.
Agreements lodged with the FWC in the fortnight to September 9 delivered annual rises of just 2.4% – the lowest in the short history of the Commission's "real-time" bargained wage data – after education deals effectively paying 1.7% a year to more than 10,000 workers dragged down the average increase.
The FWC's new leading indicator of bargained wage rises - officially launched today - shows that deals lodged in the first half of last month paid an average increase of 3%, up on those in the most recent DEWR data.
The RBA is expecting the near-8% year-end headline inflation spike to only ease to 6.25% in the middle of next year, while it is turning its guns on the ABS wage price index, which it perceives as too narrow.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says that inflation is likely to peak at 7.75% in the December quarter then decline over the next two years, while real wage rises will return next financial year, but the ACTU says the forecast only "deepens" the pay crisis, with the resumption of growth in mid-2024 meaning workers will have suffered four years of going backwards.
The Queensland Government appears to be continuing the rollout of its revised public sector wages policy, reaching an in-principle deal with the State's teachers that will deliver 11% in pay rises over three years, plus "cost of living top-up payments" of up to 3% a year.
NSW unions have called on the Perrottet Coalition Government to loosen the State's public sector pay cap after a Queensland offer to nurses that will deliver 11% in pay rises over three years plus "cost of living top-up payments" of up to 3% a year.