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The Living Wage Case: How Tight were the Economic Constraints on Equity?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Suzie Jones  and
Tim Harcourt
Tim Harcourt
Affiliation:
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Melbourne
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Abstract

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) brought down the first stage of the ‘Living Wage’ Case decisions on 22 April 1997. For the first time in nearly 30 years the decision was split. This article analyses the economic rationale for both majority and minority decisions and argues that the majority decision was overly cautious and conservative in its assessment of the economic constraints on the Commission’s capacity to award a pay increase to low paid workers.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , June 1997 , pp. 156 - 167
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1997

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Footnotes

*

The authors would like to thank Joe Isaac and John Nevile for written comments and suggestions, and Jane Howard for her assistance in the preparation of the article. The authors would also like to thank union colleagues who prepared submissions in the Living Wage Case.

References

ACTU (1996) ‘Living Wage Case - Submissions, Exhibits and Submissions in Reply’, ACTU, Melbourne Google Scholar
AIRC (1997) Safety Net Review - Wages, April 22, 1997 (Print P1997), Majority Decision and Decision of Vice President Ross, Australian Industrial Relations Commission, SydneyGoogle Scholar
Bankers Trust Australia (1997) ‘Should we Worry About the Living Wage Claim?’ BT Economics, 1 April 1997, SydneyGoogle Scholar
Commonwealth of Australia (1996) ‘Living Wage Case Submissions and Exhibits’ CanberraGoogle Scholar
Coombs, H. C. (1981) Trial Balance, Sun Books, Melbourne Google Scholar
Harcourt, T. (1997) ‘The Economics of the Living Wage’, Australian Economic Review, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 194–203 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, D., Hellwig, O. (1997) ‘Evaluation of the Distributional Impact of the 1996–97 Budget on Australian Households’, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, Melbourne Google Scholar