As part of the migration overhaul the federal government has promised to raise the temporary skilled migration income threshold,which has remained at $53,900 since 2013. Business groups want it raised to $60,000,while the country’s peak union body believes it should be $90,000.
New analysis from the Grattan Institute confirms the current wage threshold needs to increase,as it has led to temporary migrant workers increasingly doing less skilled work,and suggested $70,000 was the optimum level.
The institute’s economic policy program director Brendan Coates called it the “Goldilocks threshold” – high enough to help prevent worker exploitation and keep wages growing,but not so high that it pushes a temporary skilled visa out of the reach of most young workers.
“It allows us to continue to sponsor workers in some of the occupations where there’s wide public support – for nurses,for teachers for allied health professionals like physiotherapists,” he said.
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“If you set it above $70,000,you start to miss out on some of those people who we objectively want to have in Australia long term. Whereas if you said a below $70,000,you just massively increase the risk that you get a lot of exploitation.”
The lift would essentially return the threshold to where it would be if it had not been frozen in 2013,Coates said. But it would have repercussions for business,and would result in sponsored workers in predominantly low-wage sectors like retail and hospitality missing out.