Australia Raises Aged Care Wages 28% to Combat Staffing Crisis

Australia's Fair Work Commission has endorsed significant wage increases for aged-care workers, but this alone won't meet the sector's growing workforce needs due to an aging population and educational constraints.

Australia’s Fair Work Commission has mandated wage increases of up to 28% for aged-care workers.

The move by the federal government is a step towards addressing workforce shortages in the care sector. However, experts warn that this alone will not be enough to meet the growing demands of an aging population.

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According to a report published by The Conversation, the number of people over the age of 80 is expected to triple in the next 40 years. This will require a larger and more skilled labor force within the care sector. It’s report that the previous government’s caps on educational enrollment and the current low interest in health and social care studies have contributed to a bottleneck that limited bringing new workers into the field.

Data published by the Australian government estimates that the health care and social assistance field will experience the highest growth of new employment when compared to other fields including education, manufacturing, and construction, between May 2023 to May 2033.

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Challenges related to an aging workforce are looming in economic hubs around the world, from Switzerland to the U.S. Some countries, like Japan, face dramatic demographic changes in the coming years. According to a report published last year by Nippon, in 2022, Japan recorded around 9.1 million workers aged 65 or older, marking the nineteenth consecutive year of growth in this demographic. To put this into perspective, 13.6% of the total workforce in Japan is 65 or older, which translates to one in every seven workers, according to SIA. For people aged 65 or older, the employment rate stood at 25.2%, marking a slight increase from the previous year as well.

To establish a workforce capable of supporting future aged-care needs in Australia, the industry must attract employees from other sectors — including those displaced from declining industries, according to The Conversation.

While the wage increase is welcome, a more multifaceted approach is likely essential for sustaining Australia’s aged care sector and ensuring quality care for the elderly in the future.