INTHEBLACK September 2021 - Magazine - Page 68
WORK SMART
// PAY R I S E S
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AS K I N G F O R A PAY R I S E I N A R E C E S S I O N O R A N E C O N O M Y
S T R U G G L I N G W I T H R E C O V E RY M AY S E E M U N R E A L I S T I C , E V E N
U N R E AS O N A B L E , B U T N O T I M P O S S I B L E . H E R E ’ S W H AT Y O U N E E D
T O K N O W A B O U T N E G O T I AT I N G A PAY R I S E – A N D W H Y PAY R I S E S
C O U L D B E G O O D F O R T H E E C O N O M Y.
STORY NICOLA HEATH
RAISING
EXPECTATIONS
68 ITB September 2021
T
he nation’s leading economists want
you to get a pay rise, as does ABC
business editor Ian Verrender, who
calls asking for a pay rise part of our
patriotic duty to save the economy.
However, increasing remuneration for workers
appears to be firmly off the agenda for many
organisations, spooked by economic uncertainty
created by the pandemic shutdowns.
According to the Royal Bank of Australia’s
(RBA) Statement on Monetary Policy released
in February 2021, “many employers have
responded to the economic challenges of the
pandemic by delaying wage increases, imposing
wage freezes and, in some cases, applying
temporary wage cuts. Forward indicators
suggest wages growth will remain soft this year.”
While wage growth in Australia is currently
at a record low of 1.4 per cent, this hasn’t
always been the case. As economist Jim
Stanford explains in The Wages Crisis in
Australia, “in the decade before the GFC