The paper provides an overview of economic theory on labour supply and discusses factors that can affect the labour supply decision including financial and non-financial benefits or disincentives, individual or household characteristics and labour demand. This review found relatively few research papers on the labour supply responses to increases in minimum and otherwise low wages...

This report considers explanations for why data show adult employees earning below the hourly Federal Minimum Wage (FMW), including whether identifiable categories of employees fall into this group, and the extent to which this phenomenon is due to data problems. The three main data sources used were the Survey of Employment Arrangements, Retirement and Superannuation...

This report examines the structure and workforce of the Retail trade industry. Topics covered include: an industry overview; industry performance and trends; forms and conditions of employment; and earnings and wage instruments.The retail industry is relatively concentrated among large firms and profit margins are the lowest of any industry. On average, wages and salaries account...

Drawing on labour force data and previous research findings, this report explores poor labour force attachment among young people. It focuses particularly on the ‘not fully engaged’ (NFE) group of young people and its changing composition over the past decade. Alternative indicators that may better capture labour market disadvantage among young people are canvassed. The...

Stage 8 of the longitudinal Life Chances Study explores the situations of 125 young Australians (75 girls and 50 boys) from diverse backgrounds, their current engagement with school and work and their future plans at the age of 16. The survey responses confirmed the continuity and layering of disadvantage: for example, 16 year olds from...