The Fair Work Commission cited a fall in inflation, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index, as the reason for a smaller increase in the minimum wage in 2019 than in 2018. Anglicare executive director Kasy Chambers notes that the CPI is based on a ‘basket of goods’ that does not include rents or housing costs. She says the CPI has only increased by 63% since 1998, while housing costs have risen by 300% over the same period. Australian Bureau of Statistics chief economist Bruce Hockman notes that there are other data sets that examine the sort of housing costs that Anglicare is referring to, but that the CPI was not intended to measure them. From The New Daily:
“The consumer price index is based on a basket of goods, but it doesn’t include rent or housing costs,” she said.
