Real wage growth remains at around 0.5 per cent per year, according to the latest CPI figures released by the ABS.

The ACTU says this continues the Morrison government’s “long-term pattern of historically low wage growth, slow jobs growth and steadily increasing costs of living”.

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said real wage growth of less than 1 per cent per year is “totally inadequate” and shows “the wage growth crisis shows no sign of ending”.

“The Morrison government keeps telling working people to wait for the pay rises to trickle down, but we can’t wait any more. The last five years have been a disaster for working people,” she said.

Meanwhile, new research released by the Centre for Future Work has shredded the Morrison government’s overblown claims about its job creation record.

The report, What’s a Million Anyway has found that job creation under the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison government has in fact been weak.

The report says the current government has the worst job creation record of any government in the last 60 years that did not have to navigate a recession or a major financial crisis.

The research further revealed that nearly half the jobs created under this government were part-time, at a time when many people working part-time desperately need more hours to stay ahead of the rising costs of living.

The number of hours worked under the Coalition government fell to a 30-year low with an average of only 20 hours per week of work available to the 14 million-odd people in the labour force.

Read THE FULL REPORT

What’s a million anyway – the Centre for Future Work’s report on job creation at https://www.futurework.org.au/what_s_in_a_million_anyway