This is a guest post by Graham Lilleyman, Director of Employment Services and Solutions Australia (“ESSA”) …
2015-16 Decision on the ANNUAL WAGE review
The Fair Work Commission has handed down their 2015-16 Decision for the Annual Wage Review.
Minimum Wage & Award Pay Increases
The federal minimum wage and all Award based pay scales will increase by 2.4%.This equates to an increase of $15.80 per week (to $672.70) for employees on the national minimum wage.In hourly rate terms the increase is $0.41 cents per hour for permanent employees (to $17.70).The 2.4% increase must also be applied to each wage classification in each Award and as such, the amount of the increase will be higher than the minimum increase as the Award classification rate of pay increases. The increase in wages will flow on to employees that are less than 21 years of age proportionally depending on the junior worker provisions that are relevant to those employees.The increase has effect from 1 July 2016.
Ensure immediate compliance to avoid penalities
Employers are reminded that they are legally obliged to comply with minimum wage and/or Award obligations and there are severe penalties for non-compliance.Employers using enterprise bargaining agreements or the old AWA’s should also ensure that they have their arrangements reviewed, because whilst awards do not generally have application to businesses that have agreements, there are certain minimum obligations under the Fair Work Act 2009 that must be complied with and only a review of your arrangements will ensure that you are compliant with your obligations.If you require any assistance regarding your compliance with your employment obligations please don’t hesitate to contact the CapitalQ Team on (08) 9228 7100 or Graham directly on (08) 9240 4230.You can see Graham’s original blog on this matter here, and check out more about Graham here and learn more about Employment Services & Solutions Australia here.