Today, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) announced its Annual Wage Review Decision for 2016-2017.

It has been announced that it will lift the national minimum to $694.90 or $18.29 per hour, representing an increase of 3.3%. This constitutes an increase of $22.20 per week to the weekly rate or $0.59 cents per hour.

The FWC’s decision makes no changes to Casual Loading rates, which is to remain at 25%.

The decision making process considered key changes in the economic environment, including real net national disposable income increasing by 6.8% over the year (to December 2016), a CPI increase by 2.1% over the year (to the March quarter 2017) and higher levels of labour productivity growth over the last 5 years.

The new rate is effective from the first pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2017.

Read more about the Annual Wage Review Decision on the FWC website.

What You Should Do

If you pay employees as per the relevant Modern Award, please ask your payroll consultant for a list of employees in MS Excel.
You can use this spreadsheet to advise us of the new rates to be paid on or after 1st July 2017. Please advise us early as you can.