Unions increase their minimum wages claim to 6%   
Media Release - May 14, 2026 ACTU.
Australian Unions will argue for a 6% Annual Wage Review increase for the country’s 3 million lowest paid workers as Trump’s war continues to tear into workers’ living standards.

Unions had been claiming a 5% increase in minimum wages but have bumped that up to 6%; after Tuesday’s Budget forecast inflation is expected to reach 5% by the middle of this year – or even higher if the war’s aftershocks drag on throughout the coming year.

The ACTU’s claim will increase the minimum wage to $26.45 per hour, lifting the weekly rate to $1,004.88.

Even before the conflict, Australian workers’ real wages were 4.5% lower than they were in March 2021 after the last prices spike due to COVID, according to ABS data.

The nation’s three million lower-paid workers need a 6% minimum wage rise that gets ahead of inflation, so they can meet everyday cost-of-living expenses, catch up on some lost wage growth and provide a buffer if the global situation does worsen.

The claim is also affordable. While the Middle East conflict is expected to reduce Australia’s economic growth slightly, it will still be above the post-pandemic average, according to Treasury forecasts.

The upcoming Annual Wage Review decision is due within weeks and directly impacts the wages of 3 million workers whose pay is set by awards. It also benefits all working Australians by setting a minimum wage floor underneath the national wages system that people bargain from.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus:

“The lowest paid workers in Australia should not go backwards because of Donald Trump’s war. They have the least capacity to cope with price increases, so their wages must keep up. Unions will argue for a wage rise of 6% because inflation is now expected to hit 5% and these workers are still behind where they were in 2021.

“When unions made our initial wage claim in March, inflation was only predicted to be 4.2% – now it’s expected to hit at least 5%. But the truth is no-one knows what will happen with oil prices and inflation could be even higher. The lowest paid Australians can’t be left short like they were during the post-Covid inflation spike.

“The lowest paid workers spend every cent they earn. No one can save when on minimum wages. When wages fail to keep up with rising costs, people have no option but to cut back on the essentials like food and doctors’ visits. This should be unacceptable to everyone.

“Employer groups always claim that just about any wage rise puts pressure on inflation but that is not grounded in reality. In fact, the total value of our revised 6% claim will only add 0.64% – or less than 1 percentage point – to the national wages bill.

“To put that in context, Rio Tinto alone could afford to pay for a wages bill twice the size of the ACTU’s 6% claim.

“In fact, each of the big four banks could pay for this claim out of their profits single-handedly and some would still have billions left over to send to shareholders.”

Unions create unemployment.

People also have a right to crap on their own plate.

Still doesn't make it a good idea.

whiteknight wrote on May 15^th, 2026 at 11:44am:



And everyone knows that Rio Tinto is the poorest of the employers.

freediver wrote on May 15^th, 2026 at 12:45pm:



I can predict that many unskilled people will lose their jobs
as it just gets too expensive to employ people.
The ones left over will have to work twice as hard to make up for the loss of labour
putting huge stress on them - burning them out.

The payroll taxes don't help either -
more Labor taxes causing unemployment.   

freediver wrote on May 15^th, 2026 at 7:35pm:



I know what goes on at the higher levels in companies.
the bosses sit around a table at least once a year and work out how they
can retrench people to lower staff numbers.
They point out productive people and take away their human resources.
That way they can get one person to do the job of 2 or more people.


In my last job I had at times up to 5 people helping me
but after more than 5 years they had all been slowly retrenched.
Even 2 people in the inwards/outwards goods area - the store -
were retrenched too -
so I had to handle all inwards and outwards shipping of whatever related to me.
3 secretaries in the company were retrenched too so I had to
do at least a day per week of such duties.
The MD kept his secretary.
The engineers who provided technical help were also retrenched
as they didn't have their main projects anymore - cancelled -
and I did a lot of technical documentation - another day per week for me.
We had two IT specialists and they both left due to stress -
the company hired one person to replace both of them -
he ended up working late every night
and often on the weekends - all free overtime for the company -
but he had a wife, kids to support and a mortgage to pay -
so he didn't complain.

Companies work on a skeleton staff and then retrench more people.
Everyone is under stress and you can't meet the deadlines they set
so you are set up for failure due to lack of staff.

Meanwhile the managing director gets a pay rise
as he has reduced the wage bill.

I spoke to an accountant at a company before that and he
said there were over 20 taxes that the company had to pay -
including payroll tax and land tax.
It was just so expensive to employ anyone.

Dnarever wrote on May 15^th, 2026 at 8:12pm:


That is not what the argument is based on. Bobby Understands the economics. You can too. Employers do not "need" employees. No particular number. If they can double the size of their business by doubling the number of employees, they will. But only if it is profitable. If it is no longer profitable to employ anyone, they will go bankrupt and every employee will be out of a job.

You need to start thinking rationally about it, instead of thinking in terms of idiotic union slogans like "goodness of their heart" or "less than x, which is the exact number of employees they need, because the economy is some kind of fixed, unchanging machine".

Sir lastnail wrote on May 15^th, 2026 at 10:27pm:



I know what's going on -
I've seen it with my own eyes.