Wages growth in WA maintained parity with the rest of the nation in the year to September, masking an otherwise anemic result for the state.
Wages growth in Western Australia maintained parity with the rest of the nation in the year to September, masking an otherwise anemic result for the state.
That comes as the Australian Bureau of Statistics today released data showing a 0.1 per cent increase in the seasonally adjusted wage price index over the June to September quarter.
As a result, Australia recorded national wages growth of just 1.4 per cent in the year to September, the slowest rate of annual growth recorded since the WPI was introduced in 1997.
While WA matched the national growth rate and recorded nominal wages growth of 1.4 per cent in the year to September, it lagged the rate of increase in all states except NSW and Victoria.
Real wages growth totalled just 1 percentage point in WA in that time, lagging every other state and territory except Tasmania, which went backwards by 1 percentage point.
Wages growth in the June to September quarter, meanwhile, was slightly better at 0.5 per cent, exceeding all states except NSW and Queensland, and slightly outpacing the national growth rate of 0.4 per cent.
ABS head of price statistics Andrew Tomadini said the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to lead to a subdued rate of wage growth nationally.
“Organisations continued to adjust to the economic uncertainty, recording fewer end of financial year wage reviews and delaying enterprise bargaining agreement increases,” he said.
“This led to a significantly reduced number of jobs recording wage rises when compared to previous September quarters.
“Additionally, the staggered implementation schedule of the Fair Work Commission annual wage review moved some regular September quarter wage rises to later quarters."
Today’s data comes one day after the ABS released payroll data that showed WA recording the smallest decrease in jobs in the nation between March and October of this year, at just 0.4 per cent.
That data showed total wages in WA falling by 4.3 per cent, though, far exceeding the rate recorded in South Australia, Northern Territory and the ACT.
