3.75% rise in Award rates and National Minimum Wage

FWC approved a 3.75% increase in all Award rates and the National Minimum Wage (NMW).

The decision will lift the NMW from $882.80 to $915.90 a week and from $23.23 to $24.10 an hour effective from 1 July 2024.

Our Take

It looks like a ‘Goldilocks approach’ by FWC - balancing the ‘too heavy’ 5% the Unions were seeking and the ‘too light’ 2% Employer Groups were seeking by achieving a rate somewhere in the middle (‘just right’).

Politically this decision appears more ‘balanced’ than last year where FWC decided to lift the NMW by 8.6% ($70.20) and all Award rates by 5.75%. The government will be happy that at least one in four workers don’t see their wages going ‘backwards’ before tax cuts, super increases and other transfer payments are considered.

There is no productivity requirement or trade-off. Employers will simply have to budget for the increases and then implement their own productivity and efficiency offsets.

Action Items

• update applicable Award rates and NMW

• check your EAs for clauses that use this decision to provide for EA increases and apply

• focus on genuine productivity and efficiency strategies before taking knee-jerk reactions to restructure

• stay tuned for further FWC updates after they continue to examine and address gender undervaluation for employers with childhood education carers, disability care and other social and community services, dental assistants, medical technicians, psychologists and other health professionals, and pharmacists – Unions are seeking a 9% increase in total for these employees

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