Last month the Fair Work Commission decided to cut Sunday and public holiday penalty rates for workers covered by four awards (fast food, retail, pharmacy and hospitality). He has modelled different scenarios, but his central scenario assumes 285,000 workers will lose an average of $2,744 a year from Sunday penalty rate cuts (the impact of lower penalty rates on public holidays has not been estimated). Denniss warns the Sunday penalty rate cuts will necessarily flow through to income tax receipts, with a reduction in tax revenue for the government worth $164.2m per year, or $656.8m over four years. Regarding the argument that Sunday penalty rate cuts would boost employment, Denniss said it was possible the total wage bill would remain steady if there was a large increase in employment. “These penalty rate cuts won’t just cost people up to $77 a week, they will also cost the budget hundreds of millions of dollars,” Chalmers said.

Source: The Guardian March 26, 2017 06:57 UTC