The Fair Work Commission (FWC) announced today that the national minimum wage and award minimum wage is to rise by 3.5 per cent to come into effect on 1st July 2025, following the commission’s annual wage review.
An estimated one-fifth of all employees in Australia are paid at the award minimum wage rates.
The minimum wage will be raised to $24.95 per hour or equivalently $948 per week, based on a 38-hour work week.
Reliance on award rates is concentrated in four industries that account for over two-thirds of all modern award reliant employees: accommodation and food services, retail trade, health care and social assistance, and administrative and support services.
Inflation rates have returned to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s target rate of 2-3 per cent. The FWC stated that without this increase in minimum wages above inflation, “the loss in the real value of wages which has occurred will become permanently embedded in the modern award system”.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) pushed for a 4.5 per cent increase to minimum wages in their submission to the review. Meanwhile, industry groups have pushed for modest minimum wage increases with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Retailers Association, and the National Retailer Association of no more than 2.5 per cent. The Australian Industry Group lobbied for an increase of no more than 2.6 per cent, with them labelling the ACTU’s push for 4.5 per cent as “reckless”. The ACTU has welcomed the FWC’s decision, with ACTU Secretary Sally McManus stating “this decision delivers a 1.1% real wage increase, one of the largest real wage increases the Fair Work Commission has awarded”.
