The national employer association Ai Group today lodged with the Fair Work Commission (FWC) its fourth and final submission in the Annual Wage Review. The submission addresses issues raised in submissions filed on 3 June by the new Australian Government and other parties.
Ai Group Chief Executive, Innes Willox, said in the submission: "Nothing raised by the Australian Government or any other parties detracts from the merit of Ai Group’s position that the Expert Panel should award a modest wage increase of 2.5%.
"This equates to an increase of about $19.30 per week in the National Minimum Wage (bringing it to $791.90 per week) and about $22.50 at the base trade level.
"Ai Group's proposal would result in the equivalent of a 4.3% increase in pre-tax remuneration for low paid employees. This figure takes into account our proposed 2.5% wage increase plus the 0.5% Superannuation Guarantee increase that is operative from 1 July 2022 and the equivalent of a 1.3% increase in pre-tax income that an employee on the National Minimum Wage will receive in coming months as a result of the legislated increase in the Low and Middle Income Tax Offset (LMITO).
"Ai Group's submission makes some important points about the statement in the Australian Government’s submission that the Government: 'recommends that the Fair Work Commission ensures that the real wages of Australia's low-paid workers do not go backwards'.
"There is nothing in the Government's submission which indicates what it means by the expressions 'low paid' and 'do not go backwards'.
"It appears that the Government's use of the expression 'low paid' is intended to refer only to employees at the lower levels of award classification structures.
"With regard to the comment that employees should 'not go backwards', it should be noted that the Government has not urged the Panel to depart from its longstanding approach of taking into account changes to taxation levels and transfer payments. As such, and as argued by Ai Group, the Panel should take into account the 0.5% Superannuation Guarantee increase and the equivalent of a 1.3% increase in pre-tax income that an employee on the National Minimum will receive from the LMITO.
"To the extent that the Australian Government is urging the Panel to award a different level of wage increase to employees earning the National Minimum Wage or classified at lower levels in award classification structures, we do not support this approach. The same percentage increase should apply to all classification levels. Also, we do not support the awarding of a flat dollar increase. Such approaches would disturb the relativities between classification levels and make the assessment of work value far more complicated," Mr Willox said.
Ai Group's latest submission in the AWR is available in full at this link
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