Fair Work awards 2.6% rise, warns of expanding pay gap On the rise: Minimum wage workers will get a $16 per week pay rise from July 1. The failure of minimum wages to keep up with the pay increases of the nation's better-paid workers over the past decade could ultimately threaten Australia's social cohesion, the head of the national industrial relations commission has warned. On Monday, the Fair Work Commission ruled that pay for the 1.5 million Australians covered by awards or the national minimum wage should rise by 2.6 per cent. For the lowest-paid workers - such as retail workers, cleaners and staff in hospitality - this equates to a wage rise of $15.80 a week, or 41¢ an hour. Each year, the industrial relations commission sets a minimum wage, something it has done since it was established early last century. On July 1, the minimum wage will rise from $606 to $622 a week - taking it to about $32,000 a year. In a speech outlining the reasons for the pay rise, Fair Work Commission president Iain Ross issued a blunt warning about social cohesion. He said the gap between Australia's haves and have-nots was widening, as far as pay rates were concerned. While some minimum wage rates had increased in real terms over the past decade, they had not kept pace with the level of wage increases generally. "Relative to all measures of median and average earnings, modern award minimum wages have fallen over the past decade and earnings inequality is increasing," he said. If not addressed, these trends may have broader implications both for our economy and for the maintenance of social cohesion in Australia. The ACTU had pushed for a $30-a-week pay rise and its secretary, Dave Oliver, said Fair Work's decision would lead to the nation's poorest workers falling further behind. Business groups had called for a rise to the lowest wage of about $5 to $10. The chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Peter Anderson, said the pay rise was excessive because it exceeded the inflation rate.