The media is abuzz today with claims that the Howard Government’s dreaded “Work Choices” policies are set to be reincarnated by the Abbott Government, which has tasked the Productivity Commission with investigating the effectiveness of penalty rates and examining whether increasing the minimum wage costs jobs.
The left fears that the minimum wage is under direct attack, as are penalty rates and laws protecting workers from unfair dismissal. For its part, the right, represented enthusiastically by the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), claims that the minimum wage creates “the very poverty trap it is supposed to alleviate” by reducing employment opportunities for the poor and lower skilled.
