00:02At this Melbourne sheet metal manufacturer, it's getting harder to make the grind work.
00:08It's extremely difficult, the pressures of the wages, the input cost to manufacture,
00:13all these things have made it very difficult to be competitive.
00:16New wages data confirms workers have been going backwards.
00:20Bosses unable to lift wages to keep on top of price rises.
00:25From the employer's point of view, the real problem is the fact that productivity is just not keeping up.
00:29The data shows wages growth being outpaced by inflation at the end of last year.
00:35Over the 12 months, private sector pay packets went up 3.4%,
00:39while public sector workers saw their wages expand by 4%.
00:44That's a good, strong and sustainable number, but with inflation higher than we'd like,
00:48obviously that has implications for real wages for the time being.
00:54It's clear the government is the key driver of inflation, which is adding into household incomes and savings.
01:01And there's another gap opening up.
01:04Unions say people on broad collective agreements saw a more than 4% increase.
01:10Those workers are moving ahead.
01:12Those who are doing really bad are those people on individual contracts.
01:16They're only getting 3%.
01:17Inflation isn't coming down any time soon, meaning workers' wages are squeezed
01:23as they pay more on home loan repayments and rents.
01:26If you want housing to be affordable, you need to deal with inequality
01:29and you need to have a tax system which taxes the very wealthy more than ordinary working people.
01:34Back at the factory, the pressure is real.
01:37All of my family work in the business as well, but including that we've got 37 other families
01:42that all rely on our business to be successful.
01:45Hard work indeed.
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