31 March 2017

The Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations (ACCER) seeks the following orders by the Fair Work Commission (FWC):

• The National Minimum Wage (NMW) be set at $710.00 per week and $18.70 per hour.
• Award rates of pay be increased by $30.70 per week.
• No award rate shall be less than the NMW

The claim in respect of the NMW is for an increase of $37.30 per week.

The claims are made in a proceeding which requires that the FWC establish and maintain a safety net of fair minimum wages that takes into account, among other matters, relative living standards and the needs of the low paid.

The claims take into account:

• the needs and relative living standards of workers who depend on the safety net rates set by the NMW and awards;
• the insufficiency of the NMW and low-paid award rates to provide workers and their dependents with a minimum acceptable standard of living in contemporary Australia;
• the fact that the Schoolkids Bonus has been withdrawn from Australian working families and the need for minimum wage rates to start to take into account that loss;
• the fact that many low paid workers and their families are living in poverty
• the safety net minimum rates of pay up to, at least, the C10 rate are insufficient to provide, in the ordinary and expected circumstances, a minimum acceptable standard of living and one that is above poverty levels;
• increases in cost of living, productivity and community-wide wages since the handing down of the Annual Wage Review 2012-13 in June 2015; and
• the social and economic impacts of the claimed increase.

Read the full submission   pdf ACCER submission to Annual Wage Review 29 March 2017 (3.11 MB)