Australia leading on minimum wages.

• Jurisdiction: Australia
• Author: Blake, Nick
• Date: 01 June 2012

While barely mentioned in the media, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) recently announced it would lodge a submission to Fair Work Australia's annual wage review seeking an increase of $26 per week for Australia's low paid workers in an attempt to lift the minimum adult wage to $615.30 per week. This would mean a 68 cent per hour increase from $15.50 to $16.19 per hour.

Former ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence said: "minimum wage workers are the backbone of the economy, the people who clean our schools and shopping centres, serve us in hotels and take care of the elderly and our children. These are people we cannot live without, yet their value is not reflected in their pay packets. We must ensure they are not forgotten".

Many of us would still consider a full time adult wage of $615.30 per week or $16.90 per hour as still being unreasonably low and possibly unfair, however it is telling that in Australia where we are increasingly part of an...