Retail worker salaries are failing to keep pace with the rising cost of everything and lag increases secured by those in other sectors, despite a period of elevated company profits.
Gross operating profits in the retail sector have increased by more than six times since 2001, while retail wages have risen by less than half as much, according to ABS data.
While not all retail companies have recorded steadily rising profits in a sector that has been heavily disrupted by the digital age, some have done very well – and this has not necessarily been shared.
John Buchanan, a professor at the University of Sydney business school, says that retail and hospitality work is often a port of entry into the labour market.
“I get a little disappointed that people’s first experience of the labour market is not necessarily a rewarding one,” Buchanan says.
“A young teacher or a young nurse, when they enter a school or a ward, they’ll usually be surrounded by people who have traditions of organising and traditions of standing up to employers and not just taking what they are served up.”
He says there tend to be more people seeking entry-level retail jobs than vacancies, which is why the rates are kept down.
You can see this in the chart below, which shows the base pay for workers on the lowest classification in supermarket enterprise agreements over the past decade. Some agreements explicitly tie base pay increases to increases in the minimum or industry award wages.
