Australians are officially poorer with the latest wage price index failing to keep up with rising inflation.<\/p>\n
Fresh Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show wages grew by 0.8 per cent in the three months until March.<\/p>\n
In total, Australians are now making 3.3 per cent more this year.<\/p>\n
This was largely unchanged from the 3.4 per cent rise in the 12 months until December and largely in line with market estimates. <\/p>\n
Despite the pay increase, the national inflation rate jumped to 4.6 per cent in March, meaning Australians\u2019 real wages went backwards.<\/p>\n
This was largely due to rising oil prices, as the US\/Israel and Iran war sent the price of the commodity skyward during March.<\/p>\n
Prior to the war, oil prices were about $US60 ($A83) a barrel before they surged to above $US100 ($A138) thanks to the closure of the critical Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n
Global X senior product and investment strategist Marc Jocum likened Wednesday\u2019s data to workers stuck on a treadmill and having to speed up just stay in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more important signal is that real wages remain negative for a second straight quarter,\u201d Mr Jocum said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn other words, even though the treadmill is still moving forward, inflation is running just fast enough that households are effectively moving backwards in purchasing power terms.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said 2026 could echo the 2022-2023 period when inflation drove a sustained erosion of real wages, which in turn dragged on households\u2019 purchasing power. <\/p>\n
Mr Jocum also noted Tuesday night\u2019s budget would add to the inflationary pressures households were experiencing. <\/p>\n
\u201cImportantly, the budget remains in deficit, so fiscal policy is still adding rather than removing demand from the economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat limits its ability to materially ease inflation pressures on its own, meaning the burden of bringing inflation down continues to fall largely on the RBA.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf targeted measures to lift productivity and sustainable wage growth don\u2019t materialise, there is a risk that elevated inflation could persist for longer, keeping real wage outcomes under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, AMP deputy chief economist Diana Mousina said the six-month rise of inflation above wages wouldn\u2019t be permanent. <\/p>\n
\u201cInflation has spiked due to the increase in oil prices, and the headline rate of inflation should start to slow from mid-year, but the real income hit is likely to remain until the end of this year,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Oxford Economics Australia lead economist Ben Udy says this will be the last set of data largely unaffected by the US\/Israel-Iran war.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pressure on household budgets is going to surge in the months ahead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile wage growth is set to pick up steam again before long, it is unlikely to offset the impact of rising inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n
VanEck head of investments and capital markets Russel Chesler said the bigger issue was what came next.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe upcoming Annual Wage Review will be an important guide to where wage growth could move from here,\u201d Mr Chesler said.<\/p>\n
He pointed to the ACTU, which is seeking a 5 per cent bump for workers, while small business groups say higher wage bills, fuel and rising rates all put employers under pressure. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith unemployment still historically low at 4.3 per cent, we think the Fair Work Commission is more likely to deliver a meaningful increase rather than defer wage rises despite lobbying for a delay by the Council of Small Business Organisations,\u201d Mr Chesler said. <\/p>\n
Annual private wages rose 3.2 per cent over the 12 months until March 2026, while public sector workers received a 3.3 per cent bump in their pay packets. <\/p>\n
ABS head of price statistics Sue-Ellen Luke said healthcare and the social assistance industry had the largest contributions to wage growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cA major commonwealth-funded initiative in the early childhood education and care workforce saw wage rises paid in the private sector for this industry, while Queensland hospital healthcare workers were the main driver of public growth.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australians are officially poorer with the latest wage price index failing to keep up with rising inflation. Fresh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,169,33600,322206,99,322200,115815,322205,2490,164,130870,211994,322202,322203,320045,3354,115817,322201,81515,322210,145632,322207,275911,205113,322208,322204,322209,308790,21259,169135,322199,9731],"class_list":["post-667458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-bureau-of-statistics","tag-australian-workers","tag-ben-udy","tag-business","tag-business-trend","tag-cameron-micallef","tag-care-workforce","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-fuel-prices","tag-market-estimates","tag-migrants-expectednew-budget","tag-national-inflation-rate","tag-negative-gearing-changes","tag-news-headlines","tag-newswire-business","tag-pay-bump","tag-pay-increases","tag-pay-packets","tag-pay-rises","tag-price-statistics","tag-public-sector-workers","tag-queensland-hospital","tag-shows-wages","tag-social-assistance-industry","tag-sue-ellen-luke","tag-tax-change","tag-wage-growth","tag-wage-price-index","tag-wage-rises","tag-xi-jinping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}