Millions of workers to get a pay rise from July | The Business | ABC NEWS

Australia's minimum wage will increase by 5.97 per cent, and minimum award workers will get a 4.75 per cent pay boost, in the Fair Work Commission's (FWC) annual wage review. The new national minimum wage will be $26.44 per hour (up from $24.95), and $1,004.90 per week (up from $948), based on a full-time 38-hour week. The pay increase will begin on July 1 for millions of low-paid workers. While the national minimum wage covers a very small proportion of the workforce, about 21 per cent of all employees in Australia are paid at a minimum award rate, amounting to almost 2.8 million people. Peak union the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) asked for 5 per cent, but it later increased that to 6 per cent after the federal budget forecast higher inflation this year. The Fair Work Commission said its determination was "particularly challenging" this year due to the "wildcard" of the war in the Middle East, which has disrupted oil supplies and accelerated inflation in Australia. The Reserve Bank expects inflation to rise to 4.8 per cent in June and the Fair Work Commission said "regrettably" it decided that it would not be responsible, in the current circumstances, to award real wage increases for employees reliant on modern award wage rates. AMP deputy chief economist Diana Mousina expects firms will pass on the wage increase to customers and AMP now factored in another interest rate rise from the RBA in its forecasts. #ABCBusiness Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-02/minimum-wage-increase-june-2026-australia/106746542 Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated. #ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia