Average workers miss out on PM's wages bonanzaSydney Morning HeraldAugust 29 2005By Nick O'Malley Workplace Reporter
The massive wage increases generated by Australia's prolonged growth spell have gone largely into the pockets of the rich, challenging the Prime Minister's claim that average workers have enjoyed a real 14 per cent pay rise since 1998, research shows.
Mr Howard made the figure a central point of the last election campaign and has used it to justify his planned industrial relations reforms.
But research by the University of Sydney's centre for industrial relations research, acirrt, has found that only the top 10 per cent of wage earners saw a rise of anything like that, enjoying an increase of 13.8 per cent between 1998 and 2004.
According to acirrt's research, based on Australian Bureau of Statistics figures and commissioned by Unions NSW, the average wage rise has been 3.6 per cent, while the median is 2.6 per cent.
The bottom 20 per cent of income earners had an increase of just 1.2 per cent.
Some workers in highly-skilled and well-paid occupations saw their pay rates rise but their earnings fall as they lost working hours. Casuals experienced far higher wage rises than permanent staff.
John Robertson, the secretary of Unions NSW, said the research revealed that those who had received the lowest real wage increases were those most dependent on minimum wages and collective bargaining.
"In this context the proposed industrial relations changes will only add to the disparity between the winners and losers," he said.
Earlier this month the Bureau of Statistics released figures showing poorer households were increasing their wealth faster than the rich, but they took into account government benefits, such as family payments and rent assistance, as well as pay.
"I think it is a bit disingenuous for [Mr Howard] to call himself a friend of the worker," said Mr Jackman. "What this research shows is there hasn't been any massive wage rise for the average Australian and what rises there have been has been off the sweat of our own brow."
He said the wage rises reflected improved productivity and skills gained as a result of training largely paid for by employers rather than the Government.
Other research, conducted by John Shields of Sydney University, found that over the same period the incomes of the 50 highest-paid Australian chief executives had increased by 194 per cent between 1999 and last year.
Dr Shields said it was likely the executives' pay had increased by up to 230 per cent if earnings from share options were taken into consideration.
He said the new research was important because it allowed economists to see how wages growth was affecting different workers for the first time.
"Now there is circumstantial evidence of a major widening of the gap between executive pay and that of line employees. That means there are issues of fairness in Government policy," he said.
"If the Government wants to say, 'it's all good, everyone had an increase', at some point you have to ask, what level of pay inequality are we prepared to accept?
"These types of questions are quite reasonable. It is not politically loaded."
DOWN PAYMENTS
- Average wage rise has been 3.6 per cent
- Median wage rise has been 2.6 per cent.
- Bottom 20 per cent of earners had a 1.2 per cent increase.
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