Unions are pushing back against business demands for higher immigration to relieve talent shortages by insisting that the minimum income for temporary skilled visa holders should be lifted to well above $90,000.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus says immigration will be a big issue at the summit and unions are “up for it”.Electrical Trades Union acting national secretary Michael Wright said the income threshold for temporary skilled visa workers – frozen for almost a decade under Coalition governments at $53,900 – was so low it was below median earnings.
Full-time average earnings were $1748 a week, according to 2021 data, or about $90,900 a year. They were just $63,336 for hospitality.Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar warned that any “excessive increase” to the income threshold “risks inadvertently excluding occupations that might otherwise be eligible for skilled migration”.
However, he also said it was only because the income threshold had not increased for so long that many of those lower-paid workers were covered. “Ten years ago most of these people wouldn’t be on this system anyway.”
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