Collective Bargaining and Wage Growth in Australia - By Jim Stanford

Collective Bargaining and Wage Growth in Australia Collective Bargaining and Wage Growth in Australia By Jim Stanford Fiona Macdonald and Lily Raynes The Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute November 2022 Collective Bargaining and Wage Growth in Australia 1 About The Australia Institute About the Centre for Future Work The Australia Institute is an independent public policy think The. [...] Collective Bargaining and Wage Growth in Australia 11 Wage Stagnation and the Erosion of Collective Bargaining An obvious factor correlated with the historical deceleration of wage growth in Australia since 2013 has been the rapid decline of collective bargaining in most sectors of the economy – particularly among private sector businesses. [...] In Europe, for example, a new directive from the Council of the EU has instructed EU-member countries to strive to expand collective bargaining coverage toward 80% of employment, as part of an ambitious strategy to lift wages across the EU: “One of the goals of the directive is to increase the number of workers who are covered by collective bargaining on wage setting. [...] Collective Bargaining and Wage Growth in Australia 24 Australian Legislative Reforms and Collective Bargaining Coverage The Commonwealth government’s proposed industrial relations reforms (outlined in the Secure Jobs, Better Wages legislation) aim to address the decade-long crisis in Australian wages, and buttress the ability of workers to demand and win higher wages in the future and share in ong. [...] Given the close correlation between eroding bargaining coverage and the stagnation of wages in Australia over the past decade, the expansion of bargaining coverage resulting from expanded multi-employer opportunities (and buttressed by other elements of the proposed legislation) will in turn contribute to the revitalisation of wage growth in Australia.