Australians aren't imagining it; they really are worse off than ever. And young Australians are increasingly worst off, despite all the headline-targeting spin about "intergenerational equity".

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A young person entering the workforce in 2021 would only ever have experienced a wage that doesn't keep up with prices.

Inflation steals their wages by eroding the value of each hour they've worked. And wage rises granted or mandated by government quickly turn into higher cost of living through inflation as productivity continues to flag.

Now Labor is seriously entertaining a proposal to mandate superannuation for all teens, which would render them less employable at the start of their careers while delivering them few benefits.

If it were to become policy, it would be another brick in a poverty agenda that reduces the value of work and the wages available to young people at exactly the age when a little extra can make a great deal of difference.

Despite a slight moderation, core inflation - which strikes out short-term crisis effects on prices, such as the spike in petrol prices sparked by the Iran war - remains above the Reserve Bank's target band. At least mortgages aren't expected to increase. That's a small reprieve, but not a win.

To help workers deal with price rises, the Albanese government has backed national and award wage rises for five years in a row. Nonetheless, workers are less well off. The OECD recently found that real annual wages in Australia have fallen by 5 per cent over the same five years - that is, the nominal wage has increased but inflation has outpaced it.

The report notes that Australia has the recorded one of the steepest declines and is one of the few OECD countries in which the real minimum wage declined in the 12 months to April 2026. There........

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