Wage agreements well ahead of CPI

New federal government figures show pay rises under enterprise bargaining agreements are growing at almost three times the rate of inflation, unlike individual pay increases that are just keeping ahead of price rises.

Average annualised wage increases through bargaining agreements grew by 3.4 per cent in the September quarter, compared with three per cent in the June quarter, with private sector rises increasing by 0.5 percentage points. Public sector agreements were unchanged.

The earlier reported wage price index for the same quarter - the Reserve Bank's preferred measure of wage inflation - showed record low annual growth of 1.9 per cent compared with the consumer price index at 1.3 per cent.