The last thing working people can afford is cuts to their workplace rights and wages. 

Profits used to rise in line with wages.

But a decade under the Coalition government saw profits soaring above wage growth. Why?

Because Liberal wage-cutting loopholes made it easier for big business to exploit workers. And that meant workers’ wages were lining big business’ pockets instead.

Then inflation hit, and big business used it as an excuse to price-gouge hard-working Australians. And while the rest of us are still struggling, big business profits and CEO salaries remain sky high.

At the same time, big business has tried to keep wages low – opposing increases to the minimum wage and spending millions to try and block work laws that deliver pay rises for workers.

The Coalition have said pay rises should only come with productivity gains, but here’s the thing: historically, our wages and productivity have grown together. That only stopped under the last Coalition government, when wages stopped moving.

If workers’ wages had actually grown in line with productivity under the Coalition, workers would now be around $10,000 better off.

We’ve finally started to see wages move in the right direction. In fact, real wages over the past year have grown by the same amount as the total rise over nearly a decade of the previous Coalition government.