Wins for workers in new financial year

The new financial year has seen working people gain several benefits that are worth noting.

The minimum wage and all modern award minimum wage rates rose by 3.75% on 1 July 2024. This increase applies to employees who are not covered by enterprise agreements.

The federal government’s paid parental leave scheme is calculated on the minimum wage. The scheme also increased by two weeks to 22 weeks on 1 July (and is scheduled to increase by two weeks per year up to 26 weeks from July 2026).

These gains benefit our members who enjoy union-negotiated paid parental leave in their enterprise agreements on top of the government scheme. For those members covered by modern awards, these improvements will go some way to assist in managing household budgets.

Employer super contributions increased from 11% to 11.5% on 1 July (and are scheduled to increase again to 12% on 1 July next year). From July 2025, subject to legislation passing, 12% superannuation will be paid on the government’s paid parental leave scheme. These measures will improve retirement savings for all working people and go some way to reducing the gender gap in retirement savings.

The stage 3 tax cuts also came into effect this month. These tax cuts were legislated by the previous government to favour only high-income earners, but after extensive lobbying by unions and others, the Albanese government modified the legislation to ensure low and middle-income earners would also benefit.

While the average tax cut for all employees will be about $1900 a year, teachers, early childhood education and care (ECEC) and school support staff stand to be some of the main beneficiaries. Early career teachers are set to receive a tax cut of up to $1700 a year. Experienced classroom teachers at the top of the scale will gain about $2700.

In the previous edition of Newsmonth, we reported on the introduction of industrial manslaughter legislation to the NSW Parliament. I’m pleased to note this legislation has now been passed (see page 16) and that NSW has now caught up to every mainland state in having an industrial manslaughter offence. The IEU congratulates Unions NSW for pursuing this campaign over many years to its rightful conclusion.

All these outcomes would not have been achieved without the campaigning and advocacy of the union movement. As part of that movement, IEU members can take pride in these reforms.