ACTU to seek minimum wage rise due to house prices

[Trippy]

Home ownership is beyond the reach of an estimated 1.5 million Australians because the growth in house prices has outstripped the rise in minimum wage more than twofold, unions say.

The ACTU will lodge a submission to the Fair Work Commission on Friday calling for a rise in the minimum wage, now at $622.20 per week, or $32,355.44 a year.

While the minimum wage was equivalent to 14 per cent of the mean house price in 1993, it is now at less than 7.5 per cent.

ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said a 250 per cent increase in average house prices in the past 20 years had made it impossible for those earning minimum wages to buy a home.

?A spokesman for Employment Minister Eric Abetz said the government would make a submission to the Fair Work Commission shortly. ?We?ll have more to say about this then,? he said.

There is a lot of different angles to take on this one, so take your pick!
I'm curious as to how paying everyone more make us more globally competitive (an area that directly effects these lower paid employees)

Wouldn't cheaper cost effective housing for owner occupiers be the answer?
While most around here relish the thought that higher house prices mean more money in your pocket where do we draw the line? I'd like to think my children can one day buy a house without selling a kidney in some back lane chop house to fund a deposit...

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/03/actu-to-launch-wage-claim-on-house-prices/

 

[Aaron_C]

Well the ACTU can ask for whatever they want, doesn't mean it will happen.

 

[eggnog]

The stupidity of the reporter is amazing. Why on earth would you expect a person on minimum wage to purchase an average priced house.

 

[Francesco]

The stupidity of the reporter is amazing. Why on earth would you expect a person on minimum wage to purchase an average priced house.

LOL. Good logic! Minimum wage must be able to afford minimum housing, not average, otherwise what is the population cohort targeted by minimum housing? Minimum housing would be targeting lower than minimum wage, the unemployed - charity, freebie!

However, ACTU is using an average wage measure to argue on a comparative basis that the minimum wage is lagging behind. Presumably, there is no consistent measure of the minimum wage to minimum housing pricing, such as the lowest decile price housing over time, which would have been more reasonable.

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

As more and more middle class jobs go overseas (as we have seen with working class jobs over the last couple of decades) the number of people owning their own home is going to decrease. Which means more renters (a collective cheer goes up from the crowd). It also means a slowing down of capital growth (*crickets chirping*). Can't have your cake and eat it, too!

Look, Unions are always going to push for higher wages and business owners are always going to push for a ceiling on wages. One group wants one thing, the other wants something else. That's the way it has always been and that is the way it will always be. The ACTU is simply latching onto housing prices this week as justification for their argument.

The crux of their outcome has nothing to do with house prices. In a month's time they will be pushing some other reason as to why the minimum wage should be increased.