Final day for current shift pay

TODAY is the final Sunday hundreds of thousands of lowpaid workers in the retail, fast food and hospitality sectors will receive their current penalty rates, which will gradually be reduced from next weekend.

Labor’s employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor said there could not be a worse time to cut penalty rates for up to 700,000 Australian workers because wages were already declining in real terms.

But supporters of the penalty rate cut argue that most workers won’t notice the slight reduction because it will coincide with a boost to the national minimum wage.

From next weekend, two million Australians on the minimum wage will receive a 3.3 per cent pay rise, giving workers $22.20 extra a week or $1154 more a year.

But Federal MPs will be at least $4000 better off each year when a 2 per cent pay rise kicks in from July.

The pollie pay increase will also coincide with a tax cut after Parliament voted to remove a 2 per cent levy, which hit Australians earning more than $180,000.

The new financial year will also see the company tax rate drop from 30 per cent to 27.5 per cent for businesses with up to $25 million in annual turnover. But large banks and multinational companies including Apple, BHP Billiton and Chevron will be forced to contribute more to the Government’s coffers from July 1.