Extract from The Guardian
A majority of Australians – including a majority of Coalition voters – think that the gap between the rich and poor is growing and jobs are getting less secure.
A ReachTel poll of 3,896 Australians found that 68.8% believe the gap between rich and poor is growing, compared with 25.8% who think it is about the same and 5.4% who believe it is shrinking.
An even larger majority, 78.5%, of voters thought jobs were becoming less secure, compared with 12.6% who were unsure and 8.9% who believed they were more secure.
The poll, commissioned by United Voice, was released on Friday before a campaign rally in Melbourne at which cleaners, childcare educators, hospitality workers and security guards will demand the federal government do more to fight income inequality.
On October 24 the Fair Work Commission will begin hearing a case about whether it can set minimum wage targets so that the lowest paid keep up with growth in average earnings.
The commission sets the minimum wage, currently set at $673 a week, but unions have called for the commission to set medium-term targets to reverse a trend of annual increases not keeping up.
United Voice says that the current minimum wage of $17.70 an hour has fallen from 65% of median earnings in 1985 to 53% in 2015.
Among Coalition voters, a slim majority (50.3%) thought the gap between rich and poor was growing and a larger majority (68.9%) thought jobs were getting less secure.
Asked about the $673 a week minimum wage, compared with the average wage of $1,516 a week, 59.4% of people thought it was too low. A further 34.9% thought it was “about right” and just 5.8% thought it was too high.
More Coalition voters believed the minimum wage was about right (49.8%) than too low (41.8%).
A majority of people (67.9%) believed the government was not doing enough to address the gap between the rich and poor.
United Voice’s Victorian secretary, Jess Walsh, said: “Over the past few decades we’ve seen a huge gulf open up between people on the bottom and those at top, along with a hollowing out of the middle.
“Our members say it’s impossible to properly support a family on just $17.70 an hour.
“Australians want strong and deliberate action to reduce inequality. But it’s pretty clear from this poll they believe [Malcolm] Turnbull is asleep at the wheel. In fact, he’s driving us off a cliff.”
According to United Voice’s submission to FWC targets could lift the minimum weekly wage of $672.70 to $866.68 in four years – an increase of 29% that would boost the hourly rate from $17.70 an hour to $22.81.
In August the ABS revealed that, in the past year, wages in the private sector grew by just 1.9% in trend terms – marking four years of falling wages growth.
Figures released in August show unemployment in Australia sits at 5.72%, the lowest in almost three years, but full-time work has continued to decline, particularly among young people aged 15-24.
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, has recognised that, despite growth in the economy, growth in incomes has been weak, constituting what he calls an “earnings problem”.
When the last set of national accounts were released on 7 September, Morrison said “we need to grow incomes and ... off the basis of improved growth in the economy and improved productivity”.
He said he didn’t want to see a wages “explosion” or wage inflation. “I am not going to task the union movement to do that because they are always quite willing to go down that path.”
A ReachTel poll of 3,896 Australians found that 68.8% believe the gap between rich and poor is growing, compared with 25.8% who think it is about the same and 5.4% who believe it is shrinking.
An even larger majority, 78.5%, of voters thought jobs were becoming less secure, compared with 12.6% who were unsure and 8.9% who believed they were more secure.
The poll, commissioned by United Voice, was released on Friday before a campaign rally in Melbourne at which cleaners, childcare educators, hospitality workers and security guards will demand the federal government do more to fight income inequality.
On October 24 the Fair Work Commission will begin hearing a case about whether it can set minimum wage targets so that the lowest paid keep up with growth in average earnings.
The commission sets the minimum wage, currently set at $673 a week, but unions have called for the commission to set medium-term targets to reverse a trend of annual increases not keeping up.
United Voice says that the current minimum wage of $17.70 an hour has fallen from 65% of median earnings in 1985 to 53% in 2015.
Among Coalition voters, a slim majority (50.3%) thought the gap between rich and poor was growing and a larger majority (68.9%) thought jobs were getting less secure.
Asked about the $673 a week minimum wage, compared with the average wage of $1,516 a week, 59.4% of people thought it was too low. A further 34.9% thought it was “about right” and just 5.8% thought it was too high.
More Coalition voters believed the minimum wage was about right (49.8%) than too low (41.8%).
A majority of people (67.9%) believed the government was not doing enough to address the gap between the rich and poor.
United Voice’s Victorian secretary, Jess Walsh, said: “Over the past few decades we’ve seen a huge gulf open up between people on the bottom and those at top, along with a hollowing out of the middle.
“Our members say it’s impossible to properly support a family on just $17.70 an hour.
“Australians want strong and deliberate action to reduce inequality. But it’s pretty clear from this poll they believe [Malcolm] Turnbull is asleep at the wheel. In fact, he’s driving us off a cliff.”
According to United Voice’s submission to FWC targets could lift the minimum weekly wage of $672.70 to $866.68 in four years – an increase of 29% that would boost the hourly rate from $17.70 an hour to $22.81.
In August the ABS revealed that, in the past year, wages in the private sector grew by just 1.9% in trend terms – marking four years of falling wages growth.
Figures released in August show unemployment in Australia sits at 5.72%, the lowest in almost three years, but full-time work has continued to decline, particularly among young people aged 15-24.
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, has recognised that, despite growth in the economy, growth in incomes has been weak, constituting what he calls an “earnings problem”.
When the last set of national accounts were released on 7 September, Morrison said “we need to grow incomes and ... off the basis of improved growth in the economy and improved productivity”.
He said he didn’t want to see a wages “explosion” or wage inflation. “I am not going to task the union movement to do that because they are always quite willing to go down that path.”
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