Time for a wage review?

The past couple of weeks has seen a number of issues arise around the topic of wages. Whether it be back pay for employee underpayments; changes to award rates, or increases in award allowances, it’s a timely reminder that annual wage reviews are an absolute must for employers.

Suncorp’s insurance arm has paid out about $32 million to more than 15,800 underpaid staff after it failed to adequately pay employees the minimum wage since 2014, due to the inconsistent use of ‘rostered employee’ and misunderstandings of appropriate entitlements.

The payback includes interest and superannuation, including about $26 million in wages and entitlements, $4.5 million in interest, and $1.4 million in superannuation.

This comes after BHP announced last week it had underpaid 28,000 employees $430 million due to basic payroll errors.

These companies are huge employers with equally huge Human Resource departments and if they can get it wrong, so can smaller businesses. Whilst underpayments of that magnitude are not common, they can certainly run into the thousands for smaller employers – and it only takes one employee to raise a concern.

In addition to recently reported underpayment claims

The Fair Work Commission has announced: the National Minimum Wage will be increased to $882.80 per week or $23.23 per hour a 5.75% increase to minimum award wages. The increase applies from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2023.

Make sure you are paying your staff correctly and talk to us about a wage review if you have any concerns.