Real wages have gone backwards

The latest data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows Australia is lagging behind peer nations when it comes to real wages.

A real wage—a wage adjusted for inflation—shows how much purchasing power a pay packet has in comparison to previous years. The OECD found that real wages in Australia are now 4.8% below pre-pandemic levels. And alarmingly, employee real wages have collapsed by nearly 9% under the Albanese Labor Government.

• Australians dont need data to know this. They are feeling the pain every single day because after two years of Labor: Food is up 11.4%
• Housing is up 14.0%
• Rents are up 14.2%
• Electricity is up 21.5%
• Gas is up 22.2%
• Health is up 11.1% and
• Education is up 10.9%.

And now, millions of Australians are also facing higher internet costs with NBN prices going up again from July, the second price hike in eight months.

This is what results when you have a Labor Government that goes on a wild $315 billion spending spree using taxpayers’ money.

In this years budget, Labor increased spending by $4 for every dollar it raised. Labor is fuelling inflation. The latest economic statistics show that:

• GDP is at 0.1% for the quarter and 1.1% through the year. This is the weakest annual growth since 1991 outside of the pandemic.
• Productivity has fallen by -5.2% under the Labor Government (Mar-22 to Mar-24).
• Real household disposable income has fallen 7.8% on a per capita basis since the election (Mar-22 to Mar-24).
• Monthly core inflation is 4.4%, higher than the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, the Euro Area, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden.
• Since the election (Mar-22 to Mar-24), there are 1,228,000 more people in Australia, a 4.7% increase.

Whether its real wages or inflation, Labor has failed to deliver on its election promise to get real wages moving as inflation remains high.

The government must tackle inflation otherwise things will continue to get harder for Wannon residents.

Published in The Hamilton Spectator