Any economist and commentator still clinging to the lie that high immigration doesn’t suppress wages only needs to look at the latest survey from recruitment firm Hays.
This survey shows that 55% of Australian employers intend to give their staff a pay rise of up to 3% in the next 12 months, while one-in-10 employers are willing to pay up to 6% or more.. The proportion of employers who do not expect any wage increases has fallen from 50% in 2020 to just 32%.
Shane Little of Hays says employees have more bargaining power in negotiating wage rises in 2021; he cites factors such as skills shortages in some sectors and limited access to migrant labour due to international border closures.
From The New Daily:
Our closed international borders are making it harder for bosses to source cheap labour from overseas, which gives local professionals extra leverage in salary negotiations, he said.
“Skill shortages in certain sectors are growing more acute and that is leading to a supply and demand conversation that workers should understand,” [Hays talent expert Shane Little said].
Employers are already preparing to give in.
Amazing isn’t it? Not flooding the labour market with an additional 180,000 to 200,000 migrant workers every years gives employees greater bargaining power, leading to wage rises.
The entire economics profession, which argued that 15 years of mass immigration was not suppressing wages (despite wage growth plummeting), should be charged with fraud.
