Big rise to minimum wage risks small business jobs, federal government warns   
WA Today
April 5, 2021


The Morrison government has warned a jump in pay for low income earners could force small businesses already coping with the economic fallout of the global pandemic to cut jobs or staff hours.

In its submission to the annual minimum wage case, which typically updates the pay of about 2.3 million workers each July, the government does not say exactly what the minimum wage should be but highlights the risks of a substantial increase.

More than two million workers across the country have their pay set relative to the minimum wage.


About 180,000 people in Australia earn the absolute minimum wage of $19.84 an hour but millions more have their pay set relative to it, especially in small businesses, making any movement in the wage a crucial economic lever that ratchet up salary costs.

“Given the current uncertainties in the domestic and international economic outlook, the government therefore urges... a cautious approach,” the government’s submission says.

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It urges the independent expert panel which sets the minimum wage to consider the importance of creating jobs and ensuring small businesses remain viable when they deliver this year’s decision in June.

The panel recommended a small 1.75 per cent increase last year.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions, which each year pushes for higher wages, said the government was tacitly suggesting a wage freeze.

“The hypocrisy of the federal government is breathtaking - they say it’s fine to get rid of JobKeeper because the economy is recovering but workers shouldn’t have a pay rise because the economy is faltering,” ACTU assistant secretary Scott Connolly said. “They can’t have it both ways.”



The unions want a 3.5 per cent increase, which would take the minimum wage to $20.53 an hour, on the basis that it would let workers spend more and assist the recovery.

JobKeeper ended last month but the government has committed money to support international aviation workers in recognition they have been particularly affected by the pandemic. Overall the government’s wage submission welcomes the improved economy since last year but still suggests the cautious approach because of the global environment.

Businesses have taken a mixed view to the minimum wage case this year, with some joining the government in suggesting caution and others such as Master Grocers Australia going further by explicitly suggesting no wage rise.

Minimum wage increase essential to economic recovery
25 March 2021
ACTU
The ACTU will argue for an increase in the minimum wage and awards of 3.5 per cent – or $26.38 per week for a full-time minimum wage worker - in its submission to the National Minimum Wage Review on Friday.

One in five workers in Australia receive the minimum wage or an award wage and rely on the annual review for pay increases.

Last year’s very low increase of just 1.75 per cent – delayed at least three months for 75 per cent of recipients - means that we have fallen behind other countries in trying to establish a living wage at 60 per cent of median income.

The UK and New Zealand are already above 60 per cent and the proposed increase to $15 in the US would take them over. Australia currently sits at 52 per cent.

The recovery should be an opportunity to address underlying problems in the workforce like low wage growth and insecure work. The Minimum Wage Review is a critical opportunity to generate wage growth and keep the recovery going.

The Reserve Bank has repeatedly made clear that wage growth is too low and this is a brake on economic growth. The recovery from the pandemic has so far increased profits but not wages, and labour’s share of GDP has fallen to historic lows.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:

“If wages don’t increase it threatens the entire recovery. Money in the hands of working people is what will create sustainable economic growth, not bigger profits for big business.

“If it is a “V” shaped recovery for profits it needs to be for wages as well. Profits rose 8.9 per cent through 2020 and the Reserve Bank says wages growth should be above 3 per cent.

“A 3.5 per cent increase in the minimum wage will flow through to one in five workers – 2.3 million people, 61 per cent of whom are women. Almost half of all casual employees rely on the annual minimum wage outcome for any pay rise.

“We have fallen behind the UK and New Zealand in establishing a living wage at 60 per cent of median incomes. We cannot tolerate a minimum wage which leaves full-time workers in poverty.

“Everyone suffers if wage growth doesn’t bounce back. If minimum wage workers do not have money to spend, local businesses feel it the most.

Hypocrisy Of Federal Govt Is Breathtaking

Yes.

And, it won't be too long now before they award themselves another huge pay rise while they're patting themselves on the back and telling us what a fantastic job they think they're doing, especially during the Covid pandemic.

Incorrect

I am on the public record imploring the government to stop the money printing

I have two businesses
And I noticed money was being put into my account under what was called cash flow boost
For several months last year

I asked my accountant want this was all about
As my businesses were doing just fine

He said it was a tax free gift from the federal government
Seriously WTF

We are a trillion-dollars in debt
And money is manifesting in my account that I do not need and I did not ask for
That has just been printed for the sake of printing it

All of this nonsense
White night wanting more money
Businesses wanting more money
Drought flood bushfire victims wanting more money
NDIS wanting more money
Covert clinics wanting more money
Airlines wanting more money
Tourism wanting more money

This is all going to lead to hyperinflation the likes of which you have not seen before

And they won't be able to raise interest rates to fight it
all the banking system and the property market will completely collapse

we are turning ourselves into Argentina and I think it's a terrible idea

If you want more money
Become more valuable

I don't even think there was an option to pay it back
I simply had to take it as personal income

Then my accountant is imploring me to buy some new motor vehicles
Instant asset write off

It's like scomo wants to give me a free car
In the middle of an economic downturn

No thank you I'm quite attached to my old vehicles

When you say asset price inflation you hit the nail on the head
When the government prints money
The price of real estate and stocks escalates
Who owns real estate and stocks
Rich bastards like me

Who doesn't

stupid people like white night who keep calling for more cash to be handed out

I would actually like my grandchildren to be able to afford a house
I would like there to be some legitimate value in businesses so that my children's superannuation accounts do not plummet when this nonsense ends

I understand that when the country is not at work
And we are not producing as much due to this virus
We all need to tighten our belts
And be more frugal

and yet all around me I see people cashing in their super early to buy mag wheels
Or cashing in their super early to buy tattoos

A conservative government my ass

Big spending big taxing big government
Scomo has a copy of Das kapital under the bed

aquascoot wrote on Apr 6^th, 2021 at 8:29am:
Bullsh1t. The cash flow boost is given as a tax credit.

Quote:


An oldie but a goodie - they have rolled this lie out with every wage case since the 1920's maybe before that.

Never once did it turn out to have been true - not once.

The right wing extremist governments around the world all believe that their supporters are dumb as dog doo doo.

Mostly they are right.

Get a new accountant.... find a good one and keep him/her.... no way should you be giving the ATO a cheque on any regular basis.... and more likely they will be returning you money... you're already paying business tax?  Or is that your cheques?

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Apr 6^th, 2021 at 10:53pm:
Everyone pays GSt. Doesnt matter how good your accountant is.

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Apr 7^th, 2021 at 12:29am:

yes, thats how I knew his claim was bullsh1t. I have a business myself. Would be nice  if the government just deposited money in your account without asking or telling, doesnt work that way.

aquascoot wrote on Apr 7^th, 2021 at 1:06pm:
They didnt put money in your account, just admit it. Its a tax credit which means you get  a discount on your gst.

Eligible businesses and not-for-profit (NFP) organisations who employ staff will receive between $20,000 to $100,000 in cash flow boost amounts by lodging their activity statements up to the month or quarter of September 2020.

The cash flow boosts will be delivered as credits in the activity statement system. They will generally be equivalent to the amount withheld from wages paid to employees for each monthly or quarterly period from March to June 2020. In practice, this means you keep the amounts you have withheld from payments for these periods.

YOU GET TO KEEP THE AMMOUNTS YOU WITH HOLD FROM EMPLOYEES WAGES.

NOW THATS A GIFT 

I will pass it on to one of the children as seed capital

But my point is that myself and probably a million other people were given money purely to put more money into circulation

That makes the government look good

Because they can say that the Australian economy is doing fine

Technically that is probably the case
If you were to just look at the stock prices and house prices you would say we were in the middle of a boom

But to construct an artificial boom when the country is definitely producing less
Is a recipe for disaster

It is pumping up a bubble that is inevitably going to burst
And it is not helping the people at the bottom

As I have said relentlessly to White night

If you are at the bottom and you are not doing well
It is in your own best interests to ask for government to stop spending money

Because it is not coming out of Scott Morrison's pocket it is coming out of yours
All government spending is a tax on the poor

The rich have loopholes
The very rich can relocate to the Cayman islands

But the poor will always be left holding the can for government waste

And whenever Canberra announcers it's latest greatest program
You can guarantee a large quota of waste

aquascoot wrote on Apr 7^th, 2021 at 1:23pm:
So you admit the government did not put money in your account. You lied. Caught you telling a few porkies lately havent I?

You lied, its there in black and white, why argue. You claimed the government  put money in your account, they didnt. Just compounding it now. You in the habit of lying. Nothing to do with pedantry.

So the government saying that I do not have to pay a $13,000 bill is not the government giving me $13,000

I think you have failed remedial maps