How To Tell If The Minimum Wage Rise Will Affect You

Finally, after longstanding calls from unions and economists, Prime Minister Antony Albanese officially raised the national minimum wage by 5.2 percent last week.

The increase will effectively result in an extra $40 per week for those on the minimum wage, but how do you know if you’ll be affected or not by the changes?

To help you out, the Fair Work Ombudsman has released some handy information that will help you identify whether you’ll be netting some extra cash when the wage increase is officially implemented on the July 1st.

What Even Is The National Minimum Wage?

According to the Fair Work Commission (FWC), the minimum wage sets the limit for what your employer is allowed to pay an adult in Australia. Unless you’re working under a registered training agreement (like an apprentice or a trainee) or a supported wage (which limits the number of hours you can work, usually due to disability), your employer can’t pay you less than the current minimum wage.

Lots of workers in Australia are covered by a modern award, which among many things also sets a minimum amount of money you can get paid for a specific type of job (e.g. firefighter, space researcher, content writer).

It doesn’t matter if your job is putting out fires or proudly fishing for clicks — you can’t be paid less than the national minimum wage!

Enterprise agreements work in the same way: you can’t be paid less than what is set out in the national minimum wage.

If you’re full-time, the minimum wage presumes you’re working 38 hours per week, which would previously net you $20.33 per hour or $772.60 per (before tax).

This works the same if you’re a casual worker, except you’ll get an extra 25 percent loading in your hourly pay to make up for sick leave and paid holidays (rip).

What’s Changing? (Where’s my $40?)

A few things are going on in the increase to the national minimum wage last week.

Firstly, minimum wage is going up! (Adoy.)

As of July 1st, $812.60 per week or $21.38 per hour is the minimum amount of dosh an adult (who’s not an apprentice, trainer, or employed under a supported wage) can expect for their hard work.

Here’s the tricky bit: the other change is the minimum rate Australians can get paid under an award.

The tricky shit with award wages is that they set minimum rates on stuff like training levels and experience. Depending on who you are or what field you’re employed in, it might be more difficult to figure out what exact category you fit in.

For example, under my award of Editorial Employee (which falls under the Journalist Published Media award), I am entitled to a minimum income of between $25 to $32 per hour depending on my skill level and qualifications. You can find out what award you’re employed under by using this nifty tool or by having a chat with your employer or local union rep.

So no matter what award I’m employed under here, I’m still getting paid above the minimum wage. But journalists like me are still getting receiving a pay increase because most minimum award rates are rising, too!

If you’re employed full-time in an award where you receive over $812.60 (the new minimum wage), the FWC has announced that your weekly pay will increase by 4.6 percent. If this makes no sense, you can find some example scenarios from the FWC here.

Not All Awards Are Going Up Straight Away

Notably, the minimum wage isn’t going up right away. For those employed under specific awards in Tourism, Aviation and Hospitality, the wage increase won’t be implemented until later this year.

Here’s the full list of award classifications that won’t be increased until October 1st, 2022:

Aviation

• Aircraft Cabin Crew Award
• Airline Operations – Ground Staff Award
• Air Pilots Award
• Airport Employees Award
• Airservices Australia Enterprise Award 2016

Hospitality

• Hospitality Industry (General) Award
• Registered and Licensed Clubs Award
• Restaurant Industry Award

Tourism

• Marine Tourism and Charter Vessels Award
• Alpine Resorts Award

If all of this made absolutely no sense, or you’re more of a visual learner, then the FWC has developed this nifty video to help clear things up.

---

Photo credit: Yuri Krupenin/Unsplash