State government criticised for backing push for substantial minimum wage increase

There are concerns a state government backed push to raise the minimum wage by a substantial amount would hurt small businesses.

Independent economist, Saul Eslake, says an increase of four per cent to match inflation would be reasonable but says anything more than that would harm the economy.

“I think it’s a bit of a cop out for the state government to say they advocate a substantial increase without putting a number on it,” he told Tom Elliott.

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