Real wages maintained at ANZ

ANZ appears to be budgeting to maintain real pay levels for staff, with a pay rise planned in line with inflation for the next year even though the bank has resolved to freeze base pay levels for scores of senior staff.

The Financial Review reported that ANZ had left the door open for cost of living increases for staff. ANZ, like other banks, has typically paid staff a pay rise of around four per cent each year for several years now (which in most years was a little more than the rate of inflation) and did so in a bid to minimise the influence of the Finance Sector Union, with which the bank no longer has a collective agreement.

The bank advised staff that 156 top executives would receive no salary increases, a pay freeze that will be effective until about September 2010, the newspaper reported.

Commonwealth Bank last week advised staff of an effective cut in real wages, with the bank planning to lift the pay of staff by 1.5 per cent in Australia (and less than half the historic rate of inflation, though this is falling). CBA staff earning more than $100,000 face a pay freeze while the most senior executives, and also directors, face pay cuts. The real wage cuts at ASB Bank in New Zealand will be even more severe.