Wage Rises
AWARD AND FAIR WORK ISSUES FOR SMES AND RETAIL
Phew! It’s July, and we are swamped with changes to employee wages and conditions this year. There is the minimum wage rate increase, which has flowed through to Award employees, increases to superannuation payments and eligibility, and the usual annual changes to monetary thresholds. Employers are still adjusting to the casual conversion provisions introduced late last year. All of these on top of the changes to vaccination mandates and CovidSafe requirements that we have been trying to keep up with for the last 2 years. This post will deal with changes to Award wage rates, focussing on the Retail Award.
New pay increases will take effect from the start of the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2022, for all employees covered by Awards. The Fair Work Commission granted an increase of around 4.6% or $40 per week, whichever is the greater. The new pay rates will be delayed in some pandemic-affected industries, such as aviation, tourism and hospitality.
For the Retail industry, I have put the most used wage tables from the Retail Award Schedule B Pay Rates - Adult FT/PT & Casual and Junior Casual - into the post photos, or you can get them in PDF form from Emplex IWWH Posts.
Some employers have recently been forced to pay above Award rates in order to attract and retain staff. You may find some employees believe they are entitled to the pay increase in addition to their above-Award wages. This will depend on what is in any contract between you and the employee, but if it wasn’t specifically agreed, then generally Award wage increases are “absorbed” into any higher rate already paid, and no increase is required. However, if the new Award rate is higher than your agreed rate, you will need to adjust their wage so that they are always receiving at least the Award rates in every respect. Employers can find themselves in this trap, particularly where they have agreed flat or “all-up” rates that include penalties, allowances, built-in overtime etc. Employers sometimes miss the fact that if the Award minimum hourly rate goes up, the weekend penalties also go up, as does the overtime rate and many allowances, which erodes the margin of safety offered by a flat hourly rate. Flat rates and all-up rates need very careful monitoring. I recommend auditing a sample of employees with these kinds of rates on a 6-monthly basis.
If you have ongoing concerns about losing staff, you could give consideration to matching any increase, or offering some other benefit, such as working from home, enhanced leave benefits, even just ensuring you celebrate your team more often for getting through the last few years. The emotional and financial cost of staff turnover and recruitment should not be underestimated, though I recognise that businesses are under the new operational and financial pressures of inflationary costs, materials shortages, “Flurona” and sheer post-pandemic fatigue. More money may work in the short term, but we are going to need to come up with longer term solutions to the ‘Great Resignation’ that are not at the cost of business viability and our own human needs.
Disclaimer
The information in this post is of a general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual or organisation. It should not be considered or relied upon as legal advice and no liability will be accepted for any acts or omissions done in reliance upon it. Although the information provided is accurate as at the date of first posting in July 2022, it may not be accurate in the future.
