The Turnbull Government has been predicting for some time that rising employment will put pressure on the jobs market, helping ultimately to bolster pay packets and combat cost of living pressures.
Mr Swan's claim is in the ballpark. Real private sector wages under the previous Labor government grew by about 4.2 per cent, over five-and-three-quarter years. That's an annual average pace of about 0.7 per cent. The latest data available at the time Mr Swan made his claim shows under the Coalition, real private sector wages — from September 2013 to March 2018 — have grown by 1.2 per cent. That's an annual average pace of about 0.3 per cent, over four-and-a-half years. Mr Swan has overstated wages growth under Labor, and understated wages growth under the Coalition, although not excessively so. Alternative methods to assess the data produce similar, although not identical, results. Regardless, what is clear is that wages growth has been sluggish in recent years despite falling unemployment. The extent to which wages growth is within the control of governments is a different question, and not the subject of this fact check.
Fact check: Have wages grown in five years under the Coalition only as much as they did in one year under Labor?
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