ACTU pushing 'above-inflation' wage increase in 2026 as real paypackets decline


Thu 5 Feb 2026
ABC News

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus has warned there will be strikes if workers' wages can not catch up.    

Australia's biggest employers are under pressure to give their workers pay increases above 4 per cent this year, as real wages go backwards and the union movement ramps up pressure.

"In order to just keep up, you need a 4 per cent pay increase," the peak union body's secretary, Sally McManus, told ABC News today.

"People are going to want to get ahead, and that means more than 4 per cent.

"There will be strike action if we can't get wages that will keep us ahead."
Australia's annual inflation rate is currently at 3.8 per cent, which came in so unexpectedly hot that it prompted the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to hike interest rates this week.

The next round of inflation data is due out on February 25.

The RBA's latest forecasts, found in its Statement on Monetary Policy released on Tuesday, show the RBA is forecasting annual inflation growth to run faster than annual wage growth until mid-2027.

When inflation runs faster than wages, it means the "real" value of wages or purchasing power is deteriorating, corresponding to a real wage decline.

From mid-2027, the RBA is then forecasting wages to grow faster than inflation (real wage growth), which will see purchasing power improve again.


ACTU justifies 4 per cent figure on housing costs   
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) says it will push for "above-inflation" pay increases in direct negotiations with major industries, as well as for the upcoming Annual Wage Review (AWR).

The AWR covers the minimum wage and industry minimum awards. Changes to this affect millions of workers, many of them female and part-time or casual workers.

Last financial year, the Fair Work Commission gave these workers an above-inflation boost of 3.5 per cent from July 2025. Inflation was running at 2.4 per cent at the time.

The ACTU is arguing that workers need more pay because housing costs are especially high.

"Landlords keep putting up rents," Ms McManus told ABC News today.

"Inflation there, or how much they're going up there, is 4 per cent.

"Your average worker is either a renter or they're a first home buyer and they're the ones under the most amount of cost-of-living pressure for a whole lot of reasons. Rents are part of it."

A close up of Sally McManus in the Insiders studio.
Sally McManus says the ACTU will push for strikes if employers don't offer wage increases.

The last round of inflation data showed housing inflation is at 5.5 per cent annually. This includes rents and home building costs but not the cost of buying property.

Broken down, rental inflation was at 3.9 per cent in the year to December, down from 4 per cent the month beforehand.

"Annual inflation for rents has eased over the past 12 months due to stable vacancy rates in most capital cities," the Australian Bureau of Statistics noted in its latest inflation data release.

The ABC has contacted major employers, including JB Hi-Fi, Kathmandu's owner KMD Brands, and Coles. So far, Woolworths and Myer both declined to comment.

Industry groups have also been contacted.

When pays and Centrelink go up.
The price of everything goes up.

whiteknight wrote on Mar 16^th, 2026 at 3:49pm:


White Knight. Australia has one of the WORLD'S highest labour wages for Blue & White collar workers (physical and mental process workers).

A $209 pair of Scuba Fins sold in America, sells in Australia for $530.
Why?

In America where the customer is right (and get Celebrity status like holy priests) and the worker is wrong and has to work for tips.
Unions are much needed there.

Here in Australia, where the Worker is right, not the customer. Unions just inflate the worker status.

Example: Bus drivers go on strike for a pay rise. Later fares go up 20-40 cents.
The customer pays in the end.
Australian consumers need an equivalent to what Unions do for Workers.


...put that in your news column White knight 

Costs $800 to make a surfboard in Australia and it sells for $1300.

China imports lesser quality surfboards that cost $300 to make, but they get to sell it here for $1100 at a higher profit margin, while undercutting the Australian product.

With Albo Anus's millions of pleb peanut 🥜 immigrants pouring in.
They'll just scab up the work for half the price and plenty more of them where they come from. It's Black Market initiative.
Looks like Unions are gonna strike out this time.

Australia can't afford businesses to shut down because of bludgers on strike when they can replace them with cheaper workers that work like cheaper Petrol, Food and Rent 

ALP own goal against Unions

Australian Unions go after a 5% wage increase for lower-paid
Media Release - March 24, 2026 ACTU.
Australian Unions will seek a wage claim of 5 percent in the upcoming Annual Wage Review.

The ACTU’s claim will increase the minimum wage to $26.19 per hour, lifting the annual full-time rate by $2,465 to $51,761.

The 5 percent wage claim directly helps nearly 3 million workers whose pay is set by awards, but also helps all working Australians, by setting a minimum wage floor under their pay.

A 5 percent boost in wages will help Australia’s lower-paid workers get ahead of cost-of-living pressures that have gotten a lot tougher. 

Even before the Middle East conflict, rents and power prices continued to put pressure on workers’ household budgets. Now working people have the added pressures of high petrol prices and a hike in interest rates. 

Award-reliant workers are the hardest hit by increases in housing costs, such as higher mortgages and rents.

Around 41% of award workers are renters, compared to 31% of all adults. As many as 44% of award workers are also paying off a mortgage, compared to 35% of all Australians. 

The current national minimum wage is not enough to get by on; and now falls $262 a week short of what a full-time worker living alone needs to make a healthy living.

The pay gap is based on the Fair Work Commission’s budget standards research that measures how much income is needed to ensure a basic but healthy lifestyle.

Workers on award wages are also still behind from the last spike in inflation after Covid and despite progress over the last few years, they have yet to catch up.

A typical full-time award wage worker would be nearly $2,500 a year better off today, if wages had kept up with inflation from mid-2021.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus:

“Everyone knows the lowest paid workers in Australia are doing it tough because they have borne the brunt of cost-of-living increases as landlords put up rent and supermarkets and fuel companies pumped up prices to inflate their profits. Working Australians need pay rises that get them ahead of inflation so they can continue to catch up.

“We will not accept the lowest-paid workers in Australia going backwards because of the Reserve Bank and Donald Trump. Workers were the ones who felt it the most last time inflation spiked; we cannot let this happen again. This is why low-paid workers need and deserve a decent pay rise. Energy companies, the banks and the supermarkets continue to deliver their mega-profits. Hardworking Australians must not be left behind.

“A 5% wages boost for the lower paid will add about 0.6% to the national wage bill. That’s because we are talking about a pay rise for hospo and retail workers, disability workers, health care workers and baristas – not for high earners with large numbers of investment properties.

“Of course, employer groups will say that any wage rise will put pressure on inflation – like they do every year – and every time they have been wrong. And let’s get this into perspective, our entire 5% wage claim will cost less than the recent $8 billion half-yearly profits of BHP.

“What has been driving inflation is the cost of housing and petrol companies’ price gouging. Working people’s pay rises played no role. Action to cut negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts for professional landlords would drive down housing inflation. 

“We could also put downward pressure on our power prices by putting in place a 25% levy on gas exports to replace the failed Petroleum Resource Rent Tax. This would also bring in more revenue, by ending the extreme windfall profiteering by major oil and gas companies.

“A levy like this would have raised an estimated $17 billion last year – or more than twice the amount needed to fund a 5% annual wage boost for lower-paid Australian workers who need and deserve it.”