| 1901 | Commonwealth of Australia established. Under the Constitution, Parliament has no power to fix wages. Its powers are limited to setting up conciliation and arbitration machinery for prevention and settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of any one state. |
| 1904 | Conciliation and Arbitration Act passed. Court only has power to fix wages within ambit of particular dispute. |
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1906
| Federal government tries to get around its lack of power to legislate over wages by using its “customs and excise” power. Under the Excise Tariff Act employers would be exempt from excise tax if they paid a “fair and reasonable wage”. Commonwealth Court given the power to determine this amount. Bagshaw Case — a “fair and reasonable” wage is established for agricultural implement makers in South Australia. |
| 1907 | The first Federal declaration of a living wage is laid down by Justice Higgins in the “Harvester Award”. This test case forms the basis for the wage-fixing system which endures for the next sixty years.
The award approves the principle that society is responsible for providing a “fair and reasonable” wage which satisfies the needs of an unskilled labourer and his wife and children, irrespective of the worker’s skills or state of his industry. The amount (later known as the basic wage) is set at 42 shillings for a six day week.
To this is added the “secondary wages”, which awards margins for skills or other factors (such as physical working conditions, level of responsibility) associated with a particular job (later known as work value). The ratio of wages for unskilled to skilled workers is set at 7:10. Employers could also make over-award payments.
The fitter is the first classification to be assessed for margins and this soon becomes the benchmark classification.
The Harvester judgement is based on the principle of comparative wage justice in which workers doing the same work in different firms or industries receive the same wage, irrespective of employer’s capacity to pay.
The judgement subsequently becomes the standard in determining new awards. |
| 1912 | Establishment of the retail price index as a crude measure of price movements. Hearings set wage standards for six state capitals, twenty-six country towns and two localities. |
| 1913 | Higgins links adjustments in basic wage to Retail Price Index. |
| 1914 | By now a large part of the trade union movement has been brought within the basic wage and margins principles. |
| 1919 | Piddington Commission concludes basic wage has lost value by up to 41%. |
| 1920 | Arbitration Act amended to allow for variation of awards during their lifetime. This leads to the first real National Wage Cases in 1921 and 1922. |
| 1921 | Establishment of quarterly cost of living adjustments to protect workers against rapid war-induced inflation. These rises apply to the basic wage only, with changes in margins usually occurring only when there has been a change in job content. (This results in compression of margins, especially in inflationary periods.) |
| 1930 | The Railways Commissioners of four states and a number of private employers apply to the Commonwealth Court for a reduction in the basic wage.
Metal Trades Award introduced, with 154 classifications, the lowest of which is paid the basic wage. The Award becomes the benchmark award, with pressures for catch ups under comparative wage justice principles leading to flow ons in other industries. |
| 1931 | The Court orders a 10% cut in wages. In doing so it departs from the principle of a living wage and bases it instead on the national economic capacity to pay. |
| 1934 | Basic Wage Inquiry gives primacy to capacity to pay. |
| 1937 | Metal Trades Margins case restores Harvester ratio. “Prosperity loading” awarded. Not subject to quarterly adjustments. |
| 1950 | Basic minimum wage fixed for women workers at 75% of the male basic wage. “Prosperity loading” incorporated into basic wage for cost of living adjustments. |
1952 | Metal Trades Margins case conducted by ACTU on behalf of all unions. |
1953 | Quarterly cost of living adjustments abandoned at employers’ request on grounds that they are inflationary.
Thereafter Court reviews basic wage at irregular intervals, granting seven increases between 1954-1966. |
| 1961 | Consumer Price Index (CPI) introduced as a more sophisticated indicator than the Retail Price Index (RPI). |
| 1966 | Commission enables minimum wage for adult males, but refuses to apply it to women workers. |
| 1967 | Commission abolishes basic wage and margins from Commonwealth awards and substitutes a single total wage. This merges the basic wage and margins in each classification. Subsequent determinations increase the total wage by either a flat or percentage increase. Unions oppose the change.
Over-award payments increased, downgrading the importance of National Wage Cases.
Metal Trades Work Value Case initiated by Commission in response to increase in over-award payments and inadequacy of the award as a benchmark. Increases of up to $7.40 a week awarded. Attempts by employers to absorb increases into over-award payments result in over 400 strikes and two national stoppages. The Commission eventually rules against absorption. |
| 1969 | The Commission accepts the principle, long demanded by unions, of equal pay for equal work. |
| 1972 | The Commission accepts the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. This to be introduced over a period on the basis of work value inquiries into male and female occupations. But Commission refuses equal minimum wage for men and women. |
| 1973 | Government defeated in referendum seeking additional constitutional powers to control prices and incomes. |
| 1974 | National Wage Case grants equal minimum wage to men and women.
Average weekly earnings rise by 10% as unions capitalise on favourable labour market conditions to negotiate agreements in key occupations and then seek flow ons to other areas. |
| 1975 | Quarterly wage indexation based on CPI movements established on the grounds that wage rises were leading price rises. Thus, the system which had been abolished in 1953 on the grounds it was causing inflation was reintroduced to curb it. Real wage rises to be geared to productivity increases, though provision is made for community catch up and changes in work value. |
| 1976 | 1976/81 - following election of Fraser Government partial, lump sum and plateau indexation decisions increasingly become the norm. Capacity to pay arguments given increasing weight. For the industrially strong, major increases are gained through collective bargaining. |
| 1978 | Change from quarterly to half-yearly wage indexation hearings. |
| 1981 | Indexation abandoned.
Significant wage increases in Metal Industry Award lead to flow-ons in other areas. |
| 1982 | Wages pause. Real wages fall by over 9%.
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| 1983 | Accord re-establishes centralised wage fixation, based on full indexation to CPI and six monthly hearings. |
| 1985 | Wage discounting and renegotiation of the Accord. |
| 1987 | Commission adopts two-tiered wages system, involving flat rate across-the-board increases with supplementary payments system and productivity bargaining.
New system hinges on concepts of efficiency and productivity. |
| 1988 | New principle (Structural Efficiency Principle - SEP) to provide incentive and scope within the wage fixation system for parties to examine their awards with a view to:
- establishing skill-related career paths which provide an incentive for workers to continue to participate in skill formation;
- eliminating impediments to multi-skilling and broadening the range of tasks which a worker may be required to perform;
- creating appropriate relativities between different categories of workers within the award and at enterprise level;
- ensuring that working patterns and arrangements enhance flexibility and meet the competitive arrangements of the industry;
- including properly fixed minimum rates for classifications in awards, related appropriately to one another, with any amounts in excess of these properly fixed minimum rates being expressed as supplementary payments;
- updating and/or rationalising the list of respondents to awards;
- addressing any cases where award provisions discriminate against sections of the workforce.
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| 1989 | National Wage Case decision introduces further measures to improve efficiency in individual enterprises. |
| 1990 | Submissions to National Wage Case hearings question centralised system’s ability to accommodate enterprise bargaining. |
| 1991 | Commission questions what interrelationship between awards and enterprise bargaining should be.
Australian Industrial Relations Commission endorses enterprise bargaining. |
| 1996 | Workplace Relations Act introduced at the federal level allowing for Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs — individual contracts) and reduces the role of awards. |
| 1997 | 1997 Queensland introduces similar workplace relations legislation allowing for individual contracts called Queensland Workplace Agreements (QWAs). |
| 1998 | International Labour Organisation (ILO) condemns both federal and state workplace relations legislation on the basis that it breaches ILO conventions to which Australia is a signatory. |
| 1999 | Queensland government introduces the Industrial Relations Act which restores the role of awards.
Federal government legislates to enshrine discriminatory youth wages in awards.
Federal government proposes “second wave” of industrial legislation to strip back awards even further, reduce the role of unions, and allow employers to dismiss workers unfairly in certain circumstances. These changes were rejected by the Senate.
Living Wage Claim by ACTU results in wage increase for low-paid workers who have not achieved increases through enterprise bargaining. |
