- Rudd government backs pay rise for 1.4m low-paid workers, By Ewin Hannan, May 18, 2010, The Australian: “Canberra is backing an above-inflation wage rise this year for the nation’s 1.4 million low-paid workers, prompting employers to warn they will be forced to shed jobs and cut hours if the position is backed by the wages umpire. As unions renewed their push for a $27-a-week increase in the minimum wage, the government said increases in minimum wages could allow low-paid workers to share in the benefits of economic growth, while ensuring jobs growth continued. Appearing before Fair Work Australia’s minimum wage panel, government advocate John Kovacic said the pay of low-income workers had ‘gone backwards’ as a result of last year’s minimum wage freeze…”
- Most sides support a rise in minimum wage after freeze, By Kirsty Needham, May 18, 2010, Sydney Morning Herald: “Eric Abetz, the opposition’s workplace spokesman, has joined the federal government and unions in supporting a rise in the minimum wage to make up for last year’s freeze. Unions and business groups are appearing this week before the Fair Work Australia tribunal, which will decide the first minimum wage case since taking over from the Howard-era Fair Pay Commission. Mr Abetz said yesterday there was a strong case for a catch-up rise, the line also being pushed by the Australian Council of Trade Unions. ‘Australian workers took to the task of assisting us through the global financial crisis. Now that we’re coming through I think it makes sense to have a catch-up,’ he said…”
Tag: Australia
Welfare Reform – Australia
Welfare change squeezes sole parents, By Adele Horn, May 5, 2010, Sydney Morning Herald: “Thousands of sole parents are worse off under rules that changed their child support entitlements and forced them to get a job or go on the dole, new research reveals. A typical sole parent with one child aged between six and 12 could be as much as $6700 a year worse off as a result of reforms initiated by the Howard government and introduced from 2006 to 2008. The study, by academics at Murdoch University in Perth, shows only when typical sole parents get a full-time job paying at least $45,000 can they be better off with the new arrangements. But this is unlikely for most as their youngest child is only seven or eight when they have to move off the Parenting Payment and into the workforce…”
Welfare Reform – Australia
Welfare crackdown misses targets, By Adele Horn, March 11, 2010, Sydney Morning Herald: “The welfare-to-work reform implemented under the Howard government failed to achieve its objectives, leaving three of the four target groups – disability pensioners, the very long-term unemployed and mature-age unemployed – little or no better off, an official report shows. Sole parents fared better in the job market after the reforms began in July 2006. The numbers on the single parenting payment fell significantly from 433,730 before the reform to 338,756 in December 2009. But it is unclear if sole parents are financially better off. The report, by the research and evaluation group of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, says the results were mixed. Despite being implemented at a time of strong labour market demand: ‘Welfare to work was only partly successful in achieving its objectives…'”