PIAA expresses concern with the Fair Work Commission’s wage rate decision, which is an increase of nearly double what the PIAA and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry were saying would be fair and reasonable.

Of greatest concern is the fact that the decision appears to have been made to increase wages without any link to productivity increases.

PIAA takes exception to the statement from Fair Work President Iain Ross that “the prevailing economic circumstances provide an opportunity to improve the relative living standards of the low paid and to enable them to better meet their needs.”

PIAA would rephrase this in this manner: “the prevailing economic circumstances for businesses make it very hard to employ people and provide wage growth unless it is linked to productivity. With high taxes, high energy costs and now higher labour costs, doing business in Australia has never been harder. We will examine over the coming weeks the impact on this rise on our Industry, but already we know it’s going to be tough for some businesses to cope with, especially small businesses and particularly those in regional and rural Australia.”