Have Wages gone Up or Down?
In June 2021, Labor’s Anthony Albanese said that Australia’s real wages had ‘flatlined’ for eight years, under the Lib/Nat government.
Figures showed that over the eight years to December 2020, real wages, (wages adjusted for the impact of inflation), grew by 3.1%, or only about 0.4% per year.
The Albanese government came to power promising to get wages increasing properly.
In October 2023, the Labor Treasurer Jim Chalmers said: “An average full-time worker was $3,700 better off in the first year of the Albanese government.” That is an increase of 3.9% over 1 year.
Much better, at first glance, than the coalition over the previous 8 years.
However, Labor’s Anthony Albanese was talking about real wages, ie: wages adjusted for the impact of inflation.
When checking Labor’s increase in wages of 3.9%, after taking account of the impact of inflation, as mentioned in 2021, the average full-time real total weekly earnings fell by 2% over the year to May 2023.
These employees were actually worse off, in real terms, by $2,012.92 after Labor’s first year in office. That is the 2% drop in real wages in just one year.
Out of the two options. Which would you prefer?
- A drop of 2%.
- An increase of 0.4%.