The 2.5% rise in the minimum wage, which equates to $20.33 an hour, and the 0.5% superannuation increase will be a “significant impost” on the viability of aged care operators, claims the Australian Aged Care Collaboration.
The organisation, an alliance of Leading Age Services Australia, Aged & Community Services Australia, Anglicare Australia, Baptist Care Australia, Catholic Health Australia and Uniting Care Australia, has written to Health and Aged Care Minister Greg Hunt and Senior Australians and Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck and asked the government to foot the bill.
“Unless the government rolls the full amount into its indexation, we will be under even more financial pressure,” said Sean Rooney (pictured above speaking at the LEADERS SUMMIT 2021), speaking on behalf of the Australian Aged Care Collaboration.
“We simply aren’t being resourced and enabled to deliver what those in our care need and deserve. Counsel assisting the Aged Care Royal Commission said providers are being placed in an impossible situation of having to choose between financial viability and providing the minimum standard of care to support residents.”
Mr Rooney said 70% of residential aged care homes are operating at a loss before any future pay rises.
The Fair Work Commission will soon decide the Health Services Union’s claims for a 25% wage increase for aged care staff and home care workers and the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation also seeking a 25% rise for aged care nurses and personal care workers.
The Federal Government delivered record funding of $17.7 billion over four years to the sector in the May Budget.
