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NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has set aside $122 million to ensure thousands of frontline community services workers in non-government organisations receive a 3.5 per cent pay rise, with the government insisting it underscores its commitment to grow real wages.
While the state government is not footing the pay rises directly, it is boosting funding to non-government organisations so they can pay the increase in the minimum wage for the workers in line with the Fair Work Commission’s annual minimum wage determination.
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said the state government was committed to real wages growth.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Those receiving the pay rise include crisis accommodation workers, counsellors, social workers, youth workers and legal officers working for organisations with state government contracts.
The contracts relate to services delivered on behalf of Department of Communities and Justice, NSW Health, Department of Education, Department of Customer Service and the Rental Bond Board.
A typical community service worker is now $57.29 better off per week after this year’s minimum wage decision. About 80 per cent of these workers are women.
The Minns government says it is committed to getting wages moving, having reached multi-year agreements with more than 60 per cent of the public sector workforce and “delivering real wages growth for the first time since 2019-20, after abolishing the Coalition’s unfair wages cap”.
However, wage disputes with psychiatrists, nurses and firefighters continue, and for the second budget in a row, Mookhey has set aside a pot of money for unforseen circumstances such as wage rises. The pot ballooned from $322 million in last year’s budget to $868 million this budget.
Mookhey said the $122 million funding injunction for NGOs would “ensure real wages grow for community service workers too”.
“We are making sure crisis workers, counsellors and youth workers get the pay rise they deserve, while their employers can get on with grappling with some of our toughest social challenges.”
Cara Varian, chief executive of the NSW Council of Social Services, said the increase in funding to reflect the rising costs of delivering essential social services for communities across NSW was welcomed.
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“Reliable, sustained indexation is vital to ensure social services organisations can continue to support people and communities in need,” Varian said.
Australian Services Union NSW and ACT secretary Angus McFarland said these community workers deserved a pay rise to keep up with the cost of living and to support their own families.
“This funding injection will mean that service providers can pass on the minimum wage increase for award workers without impacting services or jobs in the industry,” McFarland said.
Mookhey delivered his third budget last Tuesday, outlining the state government’s path to returning a modest surplus of $1.1 billion by 2027-28.
The budget focused on fiscal responsibility with no big-ticket handouts. A $1.2 billion child protection package was the major announcement of the day, with 2126 caseworkers receiving a pay rise, helping to fill the 200 vacant positions while ensuring vulnerable children were no longer housed in motels when it was unsafe to live at home.
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