AUSTRALIAN Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus, in my opinion, shows just how out of touch with the real world she is when she says that businesses can afford to pay lower income workers her proposed 7 per cent wage increase as they are making huge profits ('ACTU pushing for 7 per cent rise to minimum and award wages', Newcastle Herald, 30/3).
Certainly the banks and big firms like Coles, Woolies and Qantas probably fall into this category, but the same does not apply to the thousands of small mum-and-dad businesses where owners often have to work seven days a week just to survive with already very high overheads. The 7 per cent increase is actually at least 8 per cent when you factor in the flow-on increases to superannuation payments, annual leave loadings, and worker's compensation premiums. That all has to come out of the business owner's net profit, which more often than not means price increases to the customer to cover the extra costs. That only adds to inflation, so it's a neverending cycle. Of course the government also gets a cut of any wage increase by way of extra tax, meaning the wage earner doesn't get the full increase anyway.
