Today, the Fair Work Commission announced an increase to the National Minimum Wage in Australia.

The minimum wage will be lifted to $21.38 an hour, which is a $1.05 an hour rise from 2021’s $20.33 base, and an increase of 5.2 per cent.

The increase becomes effective from the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2022.

The rise to Modern Award minimum wages is $40 per week for classification levels with a weekly wage rate of less than $869.60 per week and a 4.6 per cent increase for all classification levels paying $869.60 per week and above.

Modern Award rates for a few select industries will be staggered beginning October 2022, and include:

  • Aviation;
  • Tourism; and
  • Hospitality Restaurant Industry Award 2020, Hospitality Industry Award 2020 and Registered and Licensed Clubs Award 2020).

The Fair Work Commission said the raise was inspired by factors including a sharp rise in the cost of living, a strong improvement in the labour market, changes to superannuation and current and forthcoming economic conditions.

enableHR will soon be able to share comprehensive wage tables for most awards and occupations.

To comply with the wage rise, here are the steps we encourage you to take, as an employer:

  • review minimum rates of pay, terms and conditions for Award covered employees and process increases from the first full pay period in July if necessary;
  • review the salary of Award covered employees to ensure that the salary continues to result in the employee being better off as compared to what the employee would have received under the Award;
  • review the base rates of pay provided under any enterprise agreement to ensure that the base rate of pay is at least equivalent to the updated base rate of pay under the Award; and
  • engage and inform team members who will be undoubtedly receiving information from the media.

For clients of enableHR, you can find Awards and Wages settings and records within enableHR – click through to our Knowledge Base.

We’re here to answer your questions, guide you towards compliance and point out all the helpful tricks and tools within enableHR, so please contact us.