It’s Wednesday the 4^th of June 2025, and the Fair Work Commission has granted a 3.5 per cent increase in minimum and related award wages, which directly and indirectly affects millions of workers. The increase will kick in on 1 July and affect more than 120 modern awards which employees are paid under. The decision directly impacts around 21 per cent of all employees, or 2.6 million people, but it also sets a benchmark for millions of other employees.

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News in brief

The Reserve Bank is worried about the on-again, off-again Donald Trump tariffs saying it could prompt consumers to rein in spending and force businesses to shelve hiring and investment plans.

There is still one seat undecided from the federal election a month ago. Bradfield in northern Sydney is very tight. Independent Nicolette Boele is currently 27 votes ahead of Liberal Gisele Kapterian.

There has been a major AI conference on with many CEOs talking about the prospect of changes to large organisations on the back of the technology. One of the highlights – Suncorp used AI tools to help process 7,000 flood claims.

Shares in IDP Education fell by 47 per cent yesterday after the company said it expected student placements to drop by up to 30 per cent this year as global trade uncertainty hurts its enrolment pipeline.

Millions of bees escaped from an overturned truck in the US state of Washington over the weekend. Emergency officials were helped by several master beekeepers after the truck, which had been hauling roughly 32,000kg of active honey bee hives, flipped over on a road near the Canadian border.

Fear-o-meter

The Fair Work Commission decision is a good one, notwithstanding complaints from all sides. In fact maybe that’s proof it was a good decision. Those directly impacted predominantly work part-time hours and are female. About half are casual employees and a disproportionate amount are low paid, or work for small business.

The decision – a 3.5 per cent rise – is in between what industry and unions wanted, and given inflation is sitting at 2.4 per cent, workers will receive a real increase in wages. That means they can afford to buy more goods and services with their take home pay.

Economists generally think the decision shouldn't precipitate a wage-price spiral, where higher pay triggers inflation. That’s been a concern over the past couple of years. In 2024 the increase was 3.75 per cent, and in 2023 it was 5.75 per cent. Both were consistent with higher inflation and didn’t trigger a wage price spiral.

The decision will give a boost to the economy and that’s a good thing.

Who's talking today?

On the needle-free vaccine technology Vaxxas is developing:

 

"You could say this is a potential replacement to needle and syringe for all vaccinations... Apprehension or anxiety around needles is actually one of the real barriers. So a technology like ours can lift that veil completely. And there are other advantages: it can be stored outside of refrigeration and this means for things like our seasonal flu vaccine can be stable at 40 degrees centigrade for more than a year, as opposed to having to have this kind of tightly controlled refrigeration distribution. 

 

We have two ways that we look at the world. You know, one in the high income countries where we have the benefits of things like refrigeration and skilled administration. We take vaccines for granted. But most of the world's population, where there's poor infrastructure and not much skilled administration for health care... we can extend the reach of vaccines into places that are difficult or impossible to reach with vaccines and that can be a real game changer."

Greed-o-meter

The $32 per week increase to the minimum wage is one of the largest above-inflation increases ever awarded, and will lift the national minimum wage to $24.95 an hour, or about $948 a week. Here's the progression of increases over the last decade:

Source: Fair Work Commission

Join us for a Fear & Greed special event!

Fear & Greed's Michael Thompson appeared on Sydney radio station 2GB yesterday, talking about the launch of his second novel. And tomorrow night, we're having a special event to celebrate the Australian release of All The Perfect Days, just a fortnight after its US publication - along with the first-ever live recording of Fear & Greed's Weekend Edition.  

This is a free event on Thursday June 5 at Business Sydney - book your ticket here for a great evening. 

And if you can't make it, but would still like to support an Australian author, you can buy All The Perfect Days at all good bookstores, or online at Booktopia.

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