SMH: Workers fear the sack and are struggling to pay the bills: union survey

SMH

Australian workers feel like they’re toiling harder for less, are struggling to pay basic household bills and increasingly fear the sack according to a survey that unions will use to push for an increase in the minimum wage. 

“If there’s ever a time for a big increase to the minimum wage, it’s now,” Australian Council of Trade Unions Secretary Ms McManus told Fairfax Media, as many low-paid workers brace for a second penalty rate cut in July.

“It’s in everyone’s interests.”

The ACTU’s largest every survey, of nearly 60,000 workers including cleaners, teachers to miners and construction workers, also reveals deep pessimism about their chances of winning a pay rise and their ability to find fulfilling work if they lose their current jobs. It also finds people are finding it harder to save and are concerned about the next generation’s prospects of permanent work as casualisation spreads.

Read the full article in the Sydney Morning Herald here.