If you work in retail and you're on the award wage, there's a small but welcome bit of good news this week - your pay just went up.

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Retail workers employed on the award rate will see the welcome sight of an additional 3.5 per cent pay in their pay packets from July 1.

For retail workers, it will bring the minimum award rate to $26.55 per hour - the largest above-inflation wage rise since 2019.

It's a win for workers, a win for communities, and it's about time.

Retail workers make up around 10 per cent of the Australian workforce.

They're the ones running the checkouts, packing online orders, managing stockrooms and serving in stores.

Many of them are young. A lot of them are women. And a lot are juggling study, parenting, or starting over in a new country.

For too long, too many of our lowest-paid workers have been doing it tough.

The cost of living has gone through the roof on rent, food, fuel and bills. And for years, wages at the lower end haven't kept up.

The double whammy of dealing........

© Canberra Times