Anthony Albanese has endorsed a minimum wage rise of at least 5.1% to keep up with inflation.
The Labor leader made the call at a press conference in Melbourne on Tuesday, after earlier equivocating over a union push for a 5.5% increase in the Fair Work Commission’s annual minimum wage review.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions on Monday asked for the $2,200 annual rise, upping their claim from a 5% rise because of surging inflation, which is tipped to hit 5.5% by mid year and 6% by year’s end.
Cost-of-living pressures and wage stagnation have emerged as the most important issues for voters ahead of the 21 May election, with runaway inflation already triggering a mid-campaign interest rate rise.
On Tuesday Albanese told ABC Radio National he supports people’s wages “not going backwards” but it would be “up to the Fair Work Commission to determine” the unions’ 5.5% claim.
Asked if he supported it, Albanese replied: “No … the Fair Work Commission makes its own decisions, but people can’t afford to go backwards.”
But Albanese later claimed he had not meant he didn’t support the claim. “The ACTU make their claim independently,” he said. “We’re not the ACTU.”
He said Labor would make a separate submission, if elected, that would be based on the minimum wage “at least keeping up with the cost of living”.
Asked if he would support a pay rise of 5.1%, the current rate of inflation, Albanese replied: “Absolutely.”
The finance minister, Simon Birmingham, told reporters in Brisbane that no political leader had ever put a figure on the size of a pay rise, but Albanese had done so “without a shred of analysis to back his position”.
Birmingham said that under Bill Shorten Labor had put in submissions calling for a “fair and economically responsible” pay rise, which Labor had “never been bothered” to do under Albanese.
Labor has also committed to make a submission in support of a pay rise in the aged care sector, in which unions are seeking a 25% boost.
Labor has promised to criminalise wage theft, ensure minimum conditions including pay in the gig economy and legislate that labour hire workers must receive the same pay as employees of the businesses in which they are placed.
On Monday, Scott Morrison criticised Albanese for refusing to guarantee in Sunday’s leaders debate that wages would keep pace with inflation.
“There’s no magic wand to increase wages,” the prime minister told reporters in Yerriyong.
“There’s no magic pen that makes it all happen. Voting at this election for the Labor Party doesn’t automatically make your wages go up.
“The way wages rise is unemployment goes down. That’s how wages rise.”
Despite unemployment falling to 4%, many workers are still receiving nominal rises of 2.5% – a pay cut in real terms – because of public sector pay caps and workplace pay deals that locked in lower rates before the inflation surge.
In the minimum wage case, which sets the pay of 2.7 million workers, the ACTU is now asking for the hourly rate to rise from $20.33 to $21.45.
Morrison on Tuesday said he supports the process of the minimum wage being “independently assessed” by the Fair Work Commission.
Labor has targeted the government for making a technical submission that did not endorse a rise of a particular size, and even argued for the “importance of low paid work” as a stepping stone to other jobs.
The ACTU secretary, Sally McManus, said “a 5.5% increase is what is now needed just to ensure people tread water, anything less has them drowning in bills”.
“Scott Morrison’s government’s submission to the Fair Work Commission is silent on backing a pay increase that keeps up with the cost of living.
“Instead it dedicates a whole section to the benefits of low paid work.”
In the earlier round of submissions, the Australian Industry Group called for a 2% increase, or $15.45 a week to the minimum wage.
The Restaurant and Catering Industry Association called for no increase in the minimum wage, arguing take-home pay is already rising due to job shortages, on top of superannuation increases and budget giveaways.
