Plans to give hundreds of thousands of workers a big payrise

Anthony Albanese is considering raising the minimum salary for temporary skilled migrants.

The threshold of $53,900, which has not been increased since 2013, will be discussed at next week’s jobs and skills summit.

Unions want a minimum salary of $91,000 for skilled migrants to deter businesses from importing workers instead of training locals. 

But business groups say a $60,000 threshold is more realistic and would allow migrants to fill roles in hospitals, schools and aged care.

Any increase would apply to new visa applicants not people who are already in Australia. 

Employers around the nation are struggling to fill vacancies with the unemployment rate at 3.4 per cent, the lowest since August 1974. 

Speaking to ABC radio on Thursday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers confirmed the government is considering raising the minimum salary threshold for skilled migrants. 

‘It hasn’t been changed since 2013. We don’t want to see local wages undercut,’ he said.

‘We do have to balance that against considerations in the care economy and elsewhere, as others have said.

‘There are a range of mechanisms and levers in the migration system and in the skills system, which the relevant ministers will look at.’

‘Our view is that there is a role for migration in filling genuine labour shortages but not as a substitute for training more Australians for more opportunities.’

Employers around the nation are struggling to fill vacancies with the unemployment rate at 3.4 per cent, the lowest since August 1974

Due to Australia’s strict border closures and Covid-19 lockdowns, 600,000 temporary migrants left during the pandemic.

The result is that Australia has the second-worst skills shortage of the rich OECD nations, second only to Canada.

Immigration policy will be a key plank of the government’s jobs and skills summit next week.

Mr Albanese’s government is also mulling increasing the migration cap from 160,000 a year to 200,000 a year, and giving all skilled migrants a pathway to permanent residency.