Annual wages growth has hit its highest levels in almost 15 years, after minimum and award wage earners secured significant pay rises.
The wage price index, which measures pay rates for a basket of representative jobs, accelerated to 4 per cent in the year to September, up from 3.6 per cent in the 12 months to June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.
Wages grew 1.3 per cent in the September quarter, the highest ever recorded in the index’s 26-year history.
Ahead of the release, economists said the latest wage price report was unlikely to force the Reserve Bank to lift interest rates at its final meeting of the year on December 5, as the central bank awaits further inflation data due before its February meeting.
Economists expect the strong jump in pay packets to be a one-off due to the Fair Work Commission’s decision to increase minimum wages by 8.6 per cent and award wages by 5.75 per cent, effective from July 1. The determination affected about 3.1 million workers.
An increase to the wages of 250,000 aged care workers also pushed up pay slips this quarter.
The September quarter marked the first increase in real wages in three years after pay growth came in above the 1.0 per cent increase in the seasonally adjusted consumer price index.
However, on annualised terms, wages growth is still languishing behind the 5.3 per cent seasonally adjusted inflation reading for the year to September.