2019 Annual Wage Review

On 30 May 2019, the Fair Work Commission announced a 3.0 per cent increase to the national minimum wage (NMW) following its 2018-2019 Annual Wage Review.

The new NMW will be $740.80 per week, or $19.49 per hour. This amounts to an increase of $21.60 per week to the weekly rate.

The decision also impacts on employees covered by Modern Awards, with all Modern Award minimum wages increasing by 3.0 per cent.

The increase will apply to base rates of pay from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2019.

It typically takes the Commission 2-3 weeks to update pay rates in each Award. Following this, updated Pay Guides for each Modern Award are issued and you’ll be able to download the updated Pay Guides from the following link:

https://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay/minimum-wages/pay-guides

Make sure you download the Pay Guide with “the rates in this guide apply from 01 July 2019” to ensure you have the current version.

Businesses using annualised salaries to remunerate employees should review these arrangements to ensure employees remain better off overall when compared to the new rates in the respective Modern Award. There’s more to this than simply multiplying the weekly Award rate by 52 weeks and guesstimating “better off overall” status, and penalties for getting it wrong can be significant. How significant? The Fair Word Ombudsman recently secured $383, 616 in penalties against the operators of three food outlets in NSW for underpaying workers.

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