Wage stagnation

23 May 2018

 

Wage growth in Australia has slowed significantly over the past five years with an ageing population a key contributing factor

About the report

A joint analysis by The University of Queensland’s Australian Institute for Business and Economics (AIBE) and Credit Suisse has found that wage growth in Australia has slowed significantly over the past five years with an ageing population a key contributing factor.

AIBE Director Professor John Mangan said working life cycles were an important contributory factor towards wages.

As the working force is decreasingly made up of age groups that experience the highest wage growth rates, it is expected that wage growth figures are under historical expectations.

“The number of people aged over 65 years has risen from 1 per cent of the workforce in the mid-1990s to four percent now.”

Professor Mangan said while this had an effect of suppressing wage growth statistics, it may be also contributing to a lack of decline in consumer spending.

The findings of the report have been covered by media outlets including The Australian, Business Insider and ABC Radio.

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