In life, it is nice to have things you can count on, and every year at this time you can absolutely be guaranteed to hear business groups and their friendly economists screaming in fear that the ACTU and the Labor government’s recommendation for an increase in the minimum wage will cause a recession.

This year the noise is a bit more hysterical than in the past couple years, but consider this opening in the Australian Financial Review:

“Employers and economists have warned the 7 per cent minimum wage rise demanded by unions would make it impossible to contain inflation, tipping the nation into recession.”

Oh wait. Sorry that was from 2023 when the ACTU was pushing for a 7 per cent increase. Let’s try again:

“Employers have warned that the union movement’s claim to increase minimum wages to cope with higher inflation could trigger further rate rises, while unions say that bosses are ignoring productivity gains.”

On dear. I have to apologise again. That was from 2022 when the ACTU was pushing for a 5.5 per cent increase.

OK, third time’s the charm. Because this year the........

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