‘Shocked’: Industry warns of impact to small business amid wage rise
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland says they were shocked by the rise to the minimum wage.
The Fair Work Commission has increased the minimum wage by 5.2 per cent, bringing the minimum wage to $812.60 a week.
General manager people and culture and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland, Jason Wales, says they were shocked by the increase.
“It was a little bit to take given we were advocating a 3 per cent increase,” he told Scott Emerson.
The organisation says it’s too high in the current economic climate for Queensland businesses, given natural disasters, the COVID-19 recovery efforts and various other cost pressures.
He says they supported a steadier, slower increase.
“We’ve had calls already from businesses saying ‘jeepers Jason what are we going to do here, we are going to increase our costs to consumers’?”
Press PLAY below to hear more about what small businesses are saying