A Living Wage & Minimum Wage

The peak body for working people has a message 2.3 million people paid under awards – check your next few payslips. In the first full pay period after July 1, everyone working under an award should get a 3.5 percent raise to all award rates. No adult worker in Australia…

The Australian Services Union today called-out Qantas for their position on corporate tax cuts, saying the company had always pocketed its profits in preference to increasing wages. ASU Assistant National Secretary Linda White said during one of the most profitable periods in Qantas’ history it even frozen wages for the…

ExxonMobil, the parent company of Esso, who has attempted to drive down wages and conditions of workers at their Longford on and offshore sites, will be hauled before a Senate Inquiry into corporate tax evasion. This comes as a result of the report published today by ASU partner the Tax…

The ACTU is calling for the minimum wage to be raised to the level of a living wage, on which a low-paid worker could support themselves and their family, after ABS figures released last week show that soaring cost of living is driving millions of workers into poverty. ACTU Secretary…

Australian workers’ wages are not keeping up with the cost of living and over a million working people are underemployed, figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveal. The cost of living is growing 16 per cent faster than wages in the private sector. Workers are doing…

Today’s announcement of an increase of 3.3% to minimum award wages does not meet the principle that a full time worker in Australia should not have to live in poverty. The Fair Work Commission (FWC) recognised its failure to achieve this in its Annual Wage Review Statement but the ASU…

Australian Council of Trade Union secretary Sally McManus yesterday announced the union movement’s call for a $45 a week increase to the minimum wage. A real increase to the minimum wage will address rising cost of living, inflation and boost the economy. In her speech to the National Press Club,…

When the ASU shared the video clip of Pauline Hanson's views on penalty rates (ie. get rid of them altogether, not just cut rates for Sundays and public holidays) we knew before any polling verified it that it would be devastating for One Nation, along with the Liberals and Nationals.…

Nurses, teachers, cleaners, community, social, disability and construction workers are all at risk of having their penalty rates cut following the recent Fair Work Commission (FWC) decision. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has received independent legal advice that shows the FWC decision opens the door to penalty rate…

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) today welcomes Labor Leader Bill Shorten’s firm commitment to protecting the wages of millions of workers who sacrifice their weekends for the benefit of our economy. Employer groups have been on a relentless attack of weekend penalty rates, all in a bid to…