Labor has ramped up its ‘plan’ to lift the minimum wage despite industry claims the election pitch could cost employers $8.7 billion a year, fuelling talk of new laws being put to Parliament to force the workplace umpire to boost pay rates.
Employers are urging Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to reveal how he intends to increase the minimum wage after Labor finance spokesman Jim Chalmers said the independent umpire would ‘do the right thing’ to fix the problem.
Source: SMH
Comment: He doesn’t have a clue. When the media speak of a Labor “plan”, what they mean is an aspiration. If he forces an increase in the minimum wage, employers will simply hire fewer people.
one could argue that a wage rise that impacts an industry or economy so drastically is probably a marginal industry on the other hand it could create an enormous rise in the cost of living and destroy the viability of that part of our economy that represents employees ,eroding the value of housing and creating a vast chasm between the skilled semi skilled and unskilled contributing to significant increases among the marginally employed and unemployed, it might be more prudent to increase social benefits to shrink the cash economy offset by more available employment