Q. Would you approve or disapprove of the following actions to increase the wages of Australian workers?
Q | Total approve | Total dis-approve | Strongly approve | Approve | Dis-approve | Strongly dis-approve | Don’t know | |
Increasing the minimum wage | 80% | 11% | 28% | 52% | 9% | 2% | 9% | |
Cutting personal income taxes | 71% | 17% | 25% | 46% | 14% | 3% | 12% | |
Reducing the number of foreign workers on 457 visas | 70% | 13% | 36% | 34% | 11% | 2% | 17% | |
Stronger regulation of labor hire companies | 69% | 8% | 24% | 45% | 6% | 2% | 22% | |
Cutting company taxes so that business invest and give workers pay rises | 61% | 24% | 16% | 45% | 15% | 9% | 15% | |
Giving more power to unions to negotiate pay rises | 43% | 41% | 13% | 30% | 22% | 19% | 16% |
Q | Total approve | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Work full time | Work part time | ||
Increasing the minimum wage | 80% | 88% | 76% | 82% | 86% | 76% | 83% | ||
Cutting personal income taxes | 71% | 74% | 74% | 61% | 72% | 78% | 62% | ||
Reducing the number of foreign workers on 457 visas | 70% | 75% | 74% | 53% | 80% | 70% | 62% | ||
Stronger regulation of labor hire companies | 69% | 74% | 72% | 67% | 79% | 72% | 65% | ||
Cutting company taxes so that business invest and give workers pay rises | 61% | 55% | 72% | 51% | 65% | 64% | 61% | ||
Giving more power to unions to negotiate pay rises | 43% | 63% | 24% | 53% | 39% | 45% | 40% |
There was substantial majority agreement with all suggested actions to increase wages – except giving more power to unions to negotiate pay rises (43% approve, 41% disapprove). This was mainly due to strong disapproval from Liberal/National voters (24% approve/64% disapprove).
80% approved of increasing the minimum wage, including at least three-quarters of all voter groups.
There were similar levels of approval of cutting personal income taxes (71%), reducing the number of workers on 457 visas (70%) and stronger regulation of labor hire companies (69%).
Cutting personal income taxes was more favoured by fulltime workers (78%) than part time workers (62%).
83% of part time workers approved increasing the minimum wage.