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Implications for Wages Policy in Australia of the Living Wage Case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Trevor Stegman
Trevor Stegman*
Affiliation:
School of Economics, University of New South Wales
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Abstract

This paper considers the implications of the decision of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in the April 1997 wage case (the ‘Living Wage Case’) for wages policy. The recent history of wages policy in Australia is analysed in terms of competing goals for wages policy and the changing priorities for these goals. The Living Wage Case decision is a continuation of developments in the Australian labour market that worsen the relative income position of the low paid, tend to create a two-tier wage structure, and worsen the prospects for reductions in unemployment because responsibility for the control of wage based inflation has been given to restrictive monetary policy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , June 1997 , pp. 143 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1997

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