Employer groups – who are arguing for pay rises at the inflation rate of 1.9% or lower – have argued that larger minimum wage rises increase unemployment and decrease hours, claims now put in doubt by the RBA research. The paper said there was “no evidence” that award wage changes decreased hours worked and the results suggested “that jobs with larger award wage rises had larger increases in hours worked than jobs experiencing a smaller award wage rise”. It concluded with 95% confidence that the award wage rises did not reduce hours worked by more than half an hour. “I also find that award wage increases do not have a statistically significant effect on the job destruction rate,” Bishop said. Minimum wage rises in the measured period ranged from 0.76% for those earning more than $18.42 in 2007 to 3.9% for those earning less than that in 2006.

Source: The Guardian May 16, 2018 07:18 UTC