Young Australians Want a Pay Rise. This Election Is Their Chance To Get It.

The number of Australians working insecure jobs has risen by about half a million people since the Coalition came into power in 2013. And when some of these workers head to the polls on May 21, work conditions, wages growth and the cost of living will decide their votes.

One of them is Essie Randles, a 24-year-old from Sydney, who told VICE she is currently working four jobs and makes about $40,000 a year. 

She is one of an estimated 4.15 million Australian casual workers who are struggling to make ends meet as the rising cost of living carves substantial chunks out of their paychecks – which have remained stagnant for more than a decade – without being able to rely on a steady stream of shifts.

“About 12 months ago, I shipped it back in with my parents for a few months, because I just completely ran out of money. And now I’ve sort of built up a little bit so that I don’t feel financially insecure,” Randles said. 

“I’m in a very privileged position, but – and, maybe it’s just the way I was raised – I definitely wouldn’t say that I’m feeling good about money.”

A large part of that, Randles said, is not knowing at any given moment how much she can expect to make in a month, let alone a year. 

On the one hand, she welcomes the flexibility casual work affords her as she chases an acting career. On the other, she admits that embracing casual work could just be an “it could be worse” knee-jerk reaction to the state of an unforgiving labour market, choked out by the pandemic.

She isn’t alone. The cost of living, a tough jobs market and stagnant wages growth have converged to become a catch-all centrepiece of the federal election campaign. 

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese tried to make his pitch to those who have become undecided voters because of the issue at a press conference on Tuesday, after rolling out his “Secure Australian Jobs Plan” at the beginning of the election campaign.

The core promises included in the plan are:

• To enshrine secure work as an objective of the Fair Work Act. This means the Fair Work Commission will have to put job security at the heart of its decision-making.
• To extend the powers of the Fair Work Commission to include “employee-like” forms of work, offering gig economy workers new protections.
• To legislate a “fair, objective” test to determine when a worker can be classified as casual, so people have clearer pathways to permanent work.
• To ensure that workers employed through labour hire companies receive no less than workers employed directly.
• To make wage theft a criminal offence.
• To increase the capacity of the Fair Work Commission to order pay increases for workers in low paid, female dominated industries.
• To limit the number of consecutive fixed-term contracts an employer can offer for the same role, with an overall cap of 24 months.
• To abolish the Registered Organisations Commission (ROC) and the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).

“We’re not exaggerating the level of insecure work,” Albanese said on Tuesday. “It is a range of areas where this is happening: casualisation is one of them, contracting [work] led by companies [is another].”

“Also the gig economy, which doesn’t classify people as employees – it classifies them as contractors rather than employees. What we are seeing around Australia is a massive rise in insecure work. There are more people having to work two, three, four jobs to get by,” he said.

“I would say to the government, who are dismissive of this, that they need to get out more and talk to people on the ground about how they are really struggling.”

According to a new report from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), the number of Australians working insecure jobs has swelled by about half a million people, to 4.15 million, since 2013.

The report – whose definition of “insecure work” includes anyone working in a casual role, labour hire, the gig economy, or on rolling fixed-term contracts – found that workers are not only working under increasingly volatile conditions, but they’re also earning on average about $350 less each than their permanent full- and part-time counterparts. 

Sally McManus, secretary at the ACTU, said the report makes clear what millions of Australian workers already know: insecure workers are being ripped off, and the Morrison government hasn’t come close to doing enough for them. 

“Insecure work gives employers the upper hand in pay negotiations with more than 4 million workers,” McManus said. 

“It’s a key part of the reason we have such low wage growth. It’s also the reason why a record number of people are now forced to work more than one job.”

“As with too many issues that affect working Australians, Prime Minister Scott Morrison is missing in action when it comes to secure jobs. Rather than fighting to make sure workers have secure jobs that support them and their families, he has made it easier for employers to exploit workers.”

The report, however, runs at odds with data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Since 1988, ABS data shows that the rate of casual employment has remained flat, or even slightly dipped. (The ABS defines a casual worker as someone without access to paid holiday or sick leave who typically receives an additional hourly payment or leave loading as compensation).

Numbers aside, Randles agreed, and said the Morrison government could be doing far more to ensure job security for those balancing as many jobs as she is. A good start, she suggested, would be for the government to throw its support behind a federal wage increase. 

Jason Zhao, a 21-year-old student based in Melbourne, shared the sentiment. 

He said that while the Morrison government can’t be blamed for inflation, or supply chain schisms, it’s well within their power to campaign for a wage increase, just as Albanese has done, right from the jump. 

The Morrison government, however, hasn’t shown signs of changing tack. If anything, the Coalition appears intent on ceding even more workplace power to businesses, while relieving them of any of the discomforts that might come with a wage hike. 

The government’s position was made clearer on Tuesday when Industrial Relations Minister Michaelia Cash said the Coalition, if re-elected, would try to breathe new life into its infamous “omnibus” bill, which was slapped down in the face of fierce opposition last year. 

Under the bill, people working part-time in hospitality and retail, among other stipulations, would have been able to agree to work extra hours without overtime. Labor’s spokesman for industrial relations, Tony Burke, said the bill and the announcement of its revival, should “send shivers” down the spine of every worker. 

When asked whether the Morrison government has done enough to improve the life of workers, Randles was blunt: “Oh, no. The Morrison government hasn’t done enough,” she said. 

“They haven’t done enough across the board.”

Follow John on Twitter.

Read more from VICE Australia.