By Christina Cotter
Following the Annual Wage Review 2021, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has announced a 2.5% increase to the national minimum wage to apply from 1 July 2021. This will also apply to all award wages, with the award increase happening in 3 different stages.
For anyone not covered by an award or an agreement, the new National Minimum Wage is $772.60 per week or $20.33 per hour.
Who does the increase apply to?
The increase only applies to employees that get their pay rates from:
The increase doesn’t affect employees who already get paid more than their new minimum wage.
What do you need to do?
If you have employees on the National Minimum Wage you will need to pay them in accordance with the new minimum rates from 1 July 2021.
If you have employees on Modern Award rates, you will need to ensure that they are paid in accordance with the new minimum award rates from the first full pay period starting on or after the date set out below for each award group. The Pay Guides can be found on the Fair Work website https://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay/minimum-wages/pay-guides
You can subscribe to get email updates from Fair Work to receive notification when the new minimum rates are available in their pay tools.
When will the awards increase?
The increase to awards is happening in 3 stages.
Most awards will increase from 1 July 2021.
Wages in the Retail Award will increase from 1 September 2021 and the rates in 21 other awards where the Fair Work Commission deemed there were exceptional circumstances will increase from 1 November 2021.
The awards that will increase from 1 November 2021 are:
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