Wage Trends in Enterprise Agreements

By ACIRRT

For the September quarter 2002 the average increase was 4%pa, down by 0.2% from the June quarter.
The gap between union and non-union agreements declined with 3.8% and 3.7%

Private sector agreements went up 3.8% compared to 3.6% for the public sector.

High wage outcomes are increasingly linked to more innovative agreements and also are more "at risk" with many being based on improvements in key performance indicators. Sectors where high wage outcomes and innovation and risk were a factor were the education sector, the gaming sector, manufacturing and some services areas.

In education for example, one agreement provided a 6% annual increase over the 35 months of the agreement. But also a further 24% over the life of the agreement was available depending on the outcome of individual performance reviews.

By sector the construction industry again had the highest increases, with an annual average of 4.5%. The mining sector had the lowest at 3.4%

ACIRRT ADAM Report, no 35, December 2002