Wages growth in Australia varies wildly between occupations. At one end, mining — at the other, health and social assistance… a curious contrast.
Yesterday the ACTU released a report myth-busting many of the lies from the mining industry about the government’s “same job, same pay” legislation, designed to bring an end to labour-hire firms paying workers below enterprise award levels.
Noteworthy in the union’s report was its claim that “mining profits have increased 194% over the past decade but wages in the industry have gone backwards 6% in real terms”.
Extractive industry profits — especially from oil and gas over the past two years — have indeed soared, even accounting for a substantial drop in prices of commodities like gas, coal and iron ore over 2022-23. But mining, as the ACTU report suggests, continues to be marked by poor wages growth, even if it is by far the best-remunerated profession in average weekly earnings data.
Read about which jobs have the best real-wages growth!
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