The Fair Work Commission has announced a 3.5 per cent increase to the national minim wage.
The increase will be effective from 1 July 2025, seeing the national minimum wage rise from $24.10 per hour or $915.90 per week to $24.95 per hour or $948 per week. For minimum wage workers, the rise equates to about $1670 a year.
About one fifth of Australian workers are paid at minimum award rate, with many of those working in the hospitality industry.
The annual review process is undertaken by a panel of experts and includes research, submissions, and consultations. Its purpose is to review and make the national minimum wage order, which applies to people not covered by a modern award or enterprise agreement. It also reviews the minimum wage rates set by modern awards.
From 1 July 2025, the Superannuation guarantee will also increase to 12 per cent.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Sally McManus said that Australian Unions welcome the decision and it supports the ACTU’s argument that Australia’s lowest paid workers should catch up with what was lost during the inflation spike.
“This decision delivers a 1.1 per cent real wage increase, one of the largest real wage increases the Fair Work Commission has awarded. This wage increase means those who are paid award wages will start to get ahead again, easing pressure on their weekly budgets and part of the stress that comes from having to cut back on the basics,” said McManus.
The Chief Executive of national employer association the Australian Industry Group, Innes Willox, argued that “to raise minimum and award wages by 3.5 per cent is higher than necessary given Australia’s abysmal productivity”.
“Australia’s economy is muddling through the lowest period of growth since the recession of the early 1990s. Business margins are falling, private sector employment and investment is weak, while productivity is barely moving. Uncertainty arising from global tariffs and turmoil is also beginning to weigh on the outlook,” said Willox.
Greens Senator Barbara Pocock said that while the 3.5 per cent will help low paid workers, there is still further to go to make up for the reality of long-term losses in real wage rates.
“Given the evidence that minimum wage rises have had no impact on inflation over the last thirty-five years, it is disingenuous for business to use this argument against workers, and gives the Fair Work Commission a stronger incentive to raise the rate,” said Pocock.
Photo by Miles Burke.
Laura Box
