dollars: $p/a
Per cent: %
* Real wages are wages adjusted for inflation.
Also included in management's pay offer is a one-time bonus of $2,000, or $500p/a (that's dollars, or $/week for the life of the agreement). For the sake of comparison it isn't included above, but it can be subtracted from the total pay cut shown above.
Inflation is calculated with year-to-year quarterly inflation, averaged over the financial year (as USYD pay rises take effect in July).
For 2017-December 2022, ABS CPI figures are used. For 2023-June 2025, the RBA February forecast gives biannual estimates. Beyond this, we code RBA's "around the top of the inflation target range" as 3.0 in 2025/26 and 2.9 in 2026/27. (These estimates are merely indicative. If we use more optimistic figures for these two financial years of 2.75% and 2.5% respectively, the average real pay cut over the EAs decreases to 5.10%. If we use pessimistic figures of 3.5% and 3.0%, pay cut is increased to 5.56%.)
The NTEU claim is coded as CPI+1.5% where CPI is the average year-to-year quarterly inflation of the previous financial year.