Australia’s soaring cost of living is outstripping wage increases, leaving the average worker more than $800 worse off in 2021, the steepest cut in real terms for more than 20 years, according to Australian Council of Trade Unions president, Michele O’Neil.

“Shockingly, it is actually worse for the workers who have been on the frontline keeping the country going during the pandemic,” said O’Neil, citing ACTU analysis showing employees in healthcare and social support saw their real pay shrink $967 last year.

Staff in transport, postal and warehousing – who were “risking their health and safety to keep the nation running” – went backwards by $1,497, education and training workers by $1,362, while those in admin and support services shrank by $1,185.

Wage rises have consistently undershot budgetary forecasts even as unemployment rates have fallen. Researchers blame the weak growth in part on increased casualisation of work, giving employees less clout when they bargain with bosses.

“The cost of living issue has been compounded by nine years of low wage growth, continued attacks on workers’ rights and conditions, and the increases under this government of casual and insecure work,” said O’Neil adding the wages forecast would be “the most important element” in the government’s 2022-23 budget due 29 March.

Australia has 2.4 million casual workers with millions more on labour hire, fixed-term, or sham contracting arrangements, “or suffering under other corporate strategies to cut their wages”, she said. 

On the other hand, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, though, said he wouldn’t “take lectures from the unions or the Labor party on wages”, adding that when Labor was last in office, real wages were falling and unemployment was rising at 5.7% compared to 4.2% now. The government’s tax cuts had seen more than $29 billion flow to 11.5 million Australians since the onset of the pandemic, “ensuring hard working Australians keep more of what they earn”, Frydenberg said. Household disposable income had remained strong, rising 11.1% on pre-pandemic levels, or more than the 4.4% increase in prices over that time.