Australian Fairpay Commission

The Australian Fair Pay Commission Secretariat conducted a research program under the direction of the Australian Fair Pay Commission, to provide independent research and analysis to inform the Commission’s wage-setting decisions and monitor their impacts. The Commission’s commitment to high quality research is outlined in its Research Charter.

The research program consisted of a mix of projects commissioned from external researchers and research undertaken by the Secretariat.

The Secretariat undertook to publish all research it had commissioned.

PDFs of the Commission's hard copy research publications can be downloaded from the links below.

2009

• Changes in the Australian Labour Market over the Economic Cycle  (506 KB)     
         
• Modelling of the Macroeconomic Impact of the Fair Pay Commission's Minimum Wage Decisions  (556 KB)                        
      
• Australian Disability Enterprises - Sector Profile  (444 KB)
  Australian Disability Enterprises - Sector Profile - Appendix A and Appendix B  (576 KB)
  Australian Disability Enterprises - Sector Profile - Word
  Australian Disability Enterprises - Sector Profile Fact Sheet - PDF             
  Australian Disability Enterprises - Sector Profile Fact Sheet - Word
  Australian Disability Enterprises - Sector Profile Addendum - PDF
  Australian Disability Enterprises - Sector Profile Addendum - Word        
  
  ** CLARIFICATION
  The Endeavour Foundation (Queensland), trading as Endeavour Industries, has a total outlet capacity of 1367 Supported Employees, operates 23 Australian Disability Enterprises throughout Queensland and uses the Business Services Wage Assessment Tool.
  Endeavour Industries Limited - (Cessnock, New South Wales) developed, and currently use,their own Wage Assessment Tool, the Endeavour Wage Assessment Tool (as described in pages 158 to 168 of the above report).
  
  
• Retail Trade Industry Profile  (344 KB)
       
• Young People with Poor Labour Force Attachment: A Survey of Concepts, Data and Previous Research  (388 KB)
       
• Report on Public Consultations for the Australian Fair Pay Commission's 2009 Minimum Wage Review  (424 KB)
       
• Health and Community Services Industry Profile  (552 KB)
     
• Manufacturing Industry Profile  (308 KB)
      
• Accommodation, Cafes and Restaurants Industry Profile   (548 KB)
      
• A Multimdimensional Approach to Investigation of Living Standards of the Low-paid: Income, Wealth, Financial Stress and Consumption   (287 KB)
  
  
• Labour Mobility and Low-paid workers (3.86 MB)
  
  
• Gender Pay Differentials in Low-paid Employment  (1.35 MB)
  
  

2008

2008 Minimum Wage Research Forum Proceedings 

Forum proceedings can be downloaded in two volumes:

• Volume 1 (2.4MB)
• Volume 2 (2MB)

Individual papers are also available for download:

• Keynote Address 1: Setting minimum wages in the UK: an example of evidence-based policy (Prof. Stephen Machin, UK Low Pay Commission and LSE)  
• Keynote Address 2: Do Minimum Wage Increases Reduce Poverty? (Prof. Richard Burkhauser, Cornell University & Joseph Sabia, American University)  
• Paper 1: Migration and Labour market outcomes by skill in Australia (Prof. William Mitchell, University of Newcastle)
• Paper 2: Heterogeneous Firm Responses to Rising Teenage Wages (Dr Dean Hyslop, David C Maré, Steven Stillman & Jason Timmins, Statistics New Zealand)  
• Paper 3: Employer Responses to Minimum Wage Adjustments - A Qualitative Study (Angela Southwell, Natalie Wearne & Ben Selwyn, TNS Social Research)  
• Paper 4: The low-paid workforce and labour market transitions: assessing the impact of unemployment on earnings at the bottom of the labour market (Dr Ian Watson, Macquarie University)  
• Paper 5: A macroeconomic perspective on the setting of minimum wages (Prof. Ian McDonald, University of Melbourne)   
• Paper 6: The significance of minimum wages for the broader wage-setting environment: understanding the role and reach of Australian Awards (Dr John Buchanan & Gillian Considine, University of Sydney)  
• Paper 7: Life on the minimum wage: an empirical investigation (Dr Mike Dockery, Rachel Ong & Richard Seymour, Curtin Business School)   
• Paper 8: The effect of minimum wage changes on labour supply and income distribution (Dr Hielke Buddelmeyer and Guyonne Kalb, University of Melbourne)  
• Paper 9: The gender pay gap (Prof. Sue Richardson, Flinders University of South Australia)   
• Paper 10: Youth wages, training wages and productivity: the economic anatomy of traineeships (Mark Cully, National Centre for Vocational Education Research)  
•  Employer Responses to Minimum Wage Adjustments  
  
  
•  Report on the Australian Fair Pay Commission's 2008 Stakeholder Research
  
  
• Report on Public Consultations for the Australian Fair Pay Commission's 2008 Minimum Wage Review (TNS Social Research)   
  
  
• The Economic and Social Circumstances of Australian Young People Aged 15 - 20 Years (CLMR)
  
  
  

2007 

• A Strategy for Monitoring the Micro-Economic and Social Impacts of the Australian Fair Pay Commission (NILS) 
  
  
• Monitoring Strategy for Wage-Setting Decisions (Access Economics) 
  
  
• Characteristics of minimum wage employees - revised May 2007 (Melbourne Institute)
  
  
• Report on Targeted Focus Group Public Consultations for the Australian Fair Pay Commission's 2007 Minimum Wage Review (TNS Social Research)  
  
  
  

2006

• Interactions between wages and the tax transfer system (NATSEM)
   
• Work decisions and the tax transfer system (Colmar Brunton)
   
• An updated profile of the minimum wage workforce in Australia (NILS)
   
• What are the characteristics of the employers of the low paid in Australia (Melbourne Institute)
  
  
• Characteristics of employers of the low paid (ACREW)
  
  
• Minimum wages and employment (CLMR)

General Wage-Setting Decisions 2006 and 2007 contain references to earlier versions of the published research. These and interim versions of 2009 published research are available from the Research archive.