Latest / Best of Business / Alan McDonald: Employers and Manufacturers Association Head of Advocacy on minimum wage going up by 35 cents from April

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Alan McDonald: Employers and Manufacturers Association Head of Advocacy on minimum wage going up by 35 cents from April · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: The minimum wage will increase spy one and a half
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  Speaker 2: percent or thirty five cents to twenty three dollars fifteen
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  Speaker 2: hour from April. Training wages and starting wages will increase
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  Speaker 2: to eighteen eighty, remaining at eighty percent of the minimum wage,
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  Speaker 2: as they always do. The worker unions have criticized the move.
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  Speaker 2: They say it's effectively a pay cup for low paid workers.
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  Speaker 2: Alan McDonald is the Employees of Manufacturers Association Head of Advocacy,
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  Speaker 2: Finance and Strategy. Alan Good Evening, Good here on Good
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  Speaker 2: to have you on the show. Do you think this
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  Speaker 2: is a fear increase.
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  Speaker 3: Well, just look at the announcement earlier today and look
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  Speaker 3: at the economic conditions. You know, there's no money in
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  Speaker 3: the tin, so a moderate increase after several years of
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  Speaker 3: quite large ones is probably the right balance.
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  Speaker 2: Is this still high enough that businesses might look at
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  Speaker 2: either laying staff off or reducing hours.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think it's there. It's just every cost at
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  Speaker 3: the moment is something that business is taking into account
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  Speaker 3: and not sure it will cause them to lay off people.
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  Speaker 3: But what it will do, I think is make them
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  Speaker 3: think about who the people are that they're going to
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  Speaker 3: take on. Because if you're thinking about hiring people, and
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  Speaker 3: people are still hiring people, if you can get someone
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  Speaker 3: for like twenty five bucks an hour something like that,
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  Speaker 3: twenty six who's done a couple of years in the
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  Speaker 3: workforce with a proven track record, are you going on
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  Speaker 3: somebody at twenty three and it doesn't have that kind
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  Speaker 3: of track record? And sometimes you know, that decision comes
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  Speaker 3: down to all how much time and work and effort
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  Speaker 3: training do I have put into that new person as
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  Speaker 3: opposed to someone with a track record. So it may
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  Speaker 3: affect who they hire rather than they're hiring intentions.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, true, there'll be the minimum age worker is listening
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  Speaker 2: to this will go well. Actually, inflations up, you know,
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  Speaker 2: two point two percent to the September quarter. This is
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  Speaker 2: less than inflation. I've got rent to pay. Rents are
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  Speaker 2: up four point four percent, a four point one percent,
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  Speaker 2: I should say, from November last year November this year.
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  Speaker 2: You know, surely you can find it in yourselves.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, the minimum wage around up forty five
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  Speaker 3: percent and five years which was well of heading inflation,
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  Speaker 3: and I don't think anyone in the workforce is getting
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  Speaker 3: or won't. They haven't for the last couple of years anyway,
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  Speaker 3: got anything that even looked close to matching inflation. So
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  Speaker 3: you know, we are all doing it a bit tough
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  Speaker 3: at the moment. Thirteen and a half billion short on revenue.
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  Speaker 3: Said that this.
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  Speaker 2: Morning, that books that you mentioned earlier, I'm personally quite
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  Speaker 2: sad and like almost upset looking at the government's books today,
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  Speaker 2: especially when you look ahead. Everyone's saying survive to twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty five, and then you look at growth of twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty five and it's a kneemic to the point where
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  Speaker 2: on a per capita basis, we're still going backwards in
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. How do businesses feel about those books.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure they've taken note of that and just gone, well,
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  Speaker 3: we could have told that was going to be the case,
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  Speaker 3: because businesses are still doing it very hard, and while
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  Speaker 3: the Finance Minister is quite right some of the indicators
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  Speaker 3: are turning, it's still probably at least six and more
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  Speaker 3: likely twelve months before that kind of turn is going
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  Speaker 3: to happen. And even then, as you said, it looks
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  Speaker 3: pretty anemic.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, Ellen, thank you very much for that.
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  Speaker 2: Alan McDonald Employers Manufacturers Association with us talking about the
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  Speaker 2: increase to the minimum Wade.
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