The history of the Australian minimum wage

The History of the Australian Minimum Wage sets out in date order each of the Court and Commission decisions on the Australian minimum wage over the last 100 years. Some of the important aspects of this history are also summarised.

The author, The Hon. Reg Hamilton, formerly Deputy President of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and the Fair Work Commission, and Adjunct Professor, College of Business, School of Business and Law, Central Queensland University, wishes to acknowledge the contribution of Matt Nichol and Grant Ellis, and
the hard work of many Fair Work Commission employees.

He presented the original version of this paper to the 2014 Australian Labour Law Association annual conference.

The history has been updated to include details up to and including the June 2022 minimum wage decision.

Download The History of the Australian Minimum Wage (pdf)

Download The Minimum Wage and Fitter (Trade) Rate Since 1906 (pdf)

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