Minimum wage earners have been awarded a pay rise of $26 a week by Fair Work Australia (FWA), prompting CEO of ACAA, Rod Young, to ask "how do we actually extract even more cost savings from aged care service provision to meet the basic wage decision?
FWAs ruling brings the minimum wage to almost $570 per week and provides a boost for aged cares lower paid staff. The problem is: can an already over-burdened, financially unstable aged care industry afford to pay the extra wages without having to cut back on already stretched services and in turn face more media criticism?
As reported in last weeks Village Manager, the Federal Government has given aged care providers a 1.7 per cent annual funding boost not even close to the CPI increase of 2.9% in the March quarter.
Government Policy
The three aged care bombshells from Senate Estimates
Last week’s Senate Estimates hearing – held just three weeks before sweeping reforms roll out – gave politicians the chance to ask Government heavyweights the questions they’re getting from constituents and to interrogate the once-in-a-generation changes.
