great news! In order to solve the problem of labor shortage, Australia plans to increase the value of skilled immigration and attract more overseas labor!
The Australian federal government has pledged to raise the income threshold for temporary skilled immigration (TSMIT).
This will set a minimum wage standard for employers to pass a temporary visa (TSS) and guarantee workers to Australia.
Everyone seems to think that TSMIT is too low and should be improved. It hasn't increased since early 2013 and now has a salary of $53,900 per year that is less than 80% of full-time Australian workers.
But a key question facing the federal government is, how big should TSMIT be set?
Australian Trade Union Council ACTU hopes to increase it to $90,000. The Australian Chamber of Commerce hopes to increase it to only $60,000.
The Grattan Institute, a famous Australian think tank, recommends setting the threshold at $70,000, which only needs to be slightly higher than the threshold related to wage growth in the past decade.
Temporary skilled program is for skilled immigration projects. However, in the years since TSMIT was frozen, more and more low-wage workers have come to Australia, especially in industries such as retail and hospitality. The biggest problem caused by the low threshold of
TSMIT is that low-income technical talents are easily exploited.
Grattan Institute Research found that when technical talents arrive in Australia, there are few or no salary increases or they have received a salary increase of $70,000 or less, but those who earn more than their income at the beginning have a large salary increase of $70,000 and have more bargaining power than low- and middle-income immigrants.
On the other hand, the temporary skilled immigration income threshold (TSMIT) is not suitable for setting it too high. Temporary technical visa holders generally look young – the most typical TSS visa holders are 31 years old and are therefore in the early stages of their career. The full-time salary for Australian workers aged 25-34 is median at $7,274 per year.
If TSMIT is set too high, many young technical talents will not be able to apply. Their initially paid below average wages, but they have become the backbone of permanent skilled immigration in Australia and will receive higher salaries for a long time. After all, one in four permanent technical visas and 90% of permanent employer-guaranteed visas are issued to current stage immigrants with TSS visas in Australia. If the setting of
TSMIT is too high, it will keep large-scale technical talents that need to be solved urgently at this stage.
Grattan Institute believes that it is appropriate to set a threshold of $70,000 for TSMIT, mainly for the following four reasons:
1. Ensure that the plan is only applicable to technical talents, which will improve the integrity of the temporary skilled immigration program.
2. Ensure that the program prevents companies from hiring vulnerable immigrants with poor bargaining power, thereby reducing the risk of exploitation.
3. Ensure that the plan is only applicable to high-paying workers, Australia can make guarantees more attractive by simplifying the guarantee standards for employers and immigrants.
4. Ensure that the program can attract more young technicians to Australia through temporary guarantees, who will become a high-paying permanent immigrant group.
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