Australian workers are facing a real wage cut, with new data revealing that wages have grown at less than half the rate of inflation.
This means that workers are effectively taking a pay cut in real terms, as their wages are not keeping up with the cost of living.
The data comes from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which released its latest wage price index figures recently.
The index measures the change in the price of wages paid to workers, and is a key indicator of growth.
The latest figures show that wage growth in Australia has risen 1 per cent over the last three months, while the annual average is a growth of 3.1 per cent.
This means that workers are effectively losing ground in their battle against the rising cost of living.
The data will add to the pressure on the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to cut interest rates, as it looks to boost economic growth.
Workers in the private sector had their pay increased by 1.2 per cent over the quarter, while workers in the public sector had their pay increased by just 0.6 per cent.
Wage increases for the private sector were the primary driver of quarterly growth across all sectors, according to Michelle Marquardt from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
“Private sector wage pressures combined with the largest Fair Work Commission award increase in more than a decade led to both an increase in the size of average wage changes and the proportion of private sector jobs that recorded a wage change,” she said.
