Wages growth has been downgraded yet again in the budget, with growth in 2019-20 now forecast to be just 2.75%, compared to 3% in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook just four months ago and 3.25% in May last year.
As recently as 2017, the government was confidently predicting wages growth of 3.5% for Australian workers now. Heroically, the government is insisting wages growth will surge back over 3% in 2020, on the way to a luxurious 3.5% in 2022-23 — a level workers haven’t known since the second year of Julia Gillard’s prime ministership.
Here’s the tale of woe — how each budget wages prediction has ended up wildly optimistic for workers.
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