ACTU pushes for a $26-plus minimum wage, directly benefitting hospitality
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has lodged a new minimum wage claim that would push hourly pay above the $26 mark for millions of workers, with the union body vowing it will "not accept the lowest-paid workers in Australia going backwards because of the Reserve Bank and Donald Trump."
The push arrives at a particularly fraught moment for household budgets, with fuel prices surging in the wake of the US-Israel conflict with Iran compounding pressure from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)'s latest back-to-back cash rate increase.
Speaking on Tuesday, ACTU Secretary Sally McManus called for wage growth that would put workers "ahead of inflation so they can continue to catch up" — a pointed reference to the hit many low-income earners absorbed during the last inflationary cycle.
"Workers were the ones who felt it the most last time inflation spiked; we cannot let this happen again," McManus said.
The claim would directly benefit the hospitality, retail, disability and healthcare sectors — industries that form the backbone of Australia's service economy. McManus was explicit about who stands to gain.
"This is why low-paid workers need and deserve a decent pay rise. Energy companies, the banks and the supermarkets continue to deliver their mega-profits. Hardworking Australians must not be left behind," she said.
McManus estimated the measure would flow through to close to three million workers while adding only "about 0.6 per cent to the national wage bill" — a figure she argued was modest in context.
"That's because we are talking about a pay rise for hospo and retail workers, disability workers, healthcare workers and baristas – not for high earners with large numbers of investment properties," she said.
Anticipating pushback from employer groups, the ACTU secretary moved to pre-empt the familiar inflation argument.
"Of course, employer groups will say that any wage rise will put pressure on inflation – like they do every year – and every time they have been wrong," McManus said, framing the union's 5 per cent claim against the scale of corporate earnings.
"And let's get this into perspective, our entire 5 per cent wage claim will cost less than the recent $8bn half-yearly profits of BHP. What has been driving inflation is the cost of housing and petrol companies' price gouging. Working people's pay rises played no role."
Beyond wages, McManus pointed to structural tax reform — including scrapping negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount — as levers to ease housing-driven inflation. She also flagged a proposed levy on gas exports as a dual-purpose policy measure.
"We could also put downward pressure on our power prices by putting in place a 25 per cent levy on gas exports to replace the failed petroleum resource rent tax," she said.
"This would also bring in more revenue by ending the extreme windfall profiteering by major oil and gas companies. A levy like this would have raised an estimated $17bn last year – or more than twice the amount needed to fund a 5 per cent annual wage boost for lower-paid Australian workers who need and deserve it."
Jonathan Jackson, 26th March 2026
