What impact does immigration have on wages? | Ask An Economist

In this episode, Matt Grudnoff & Richard Denniss answer the question: "What impact does immigration have on wages?"

Thanks for watching the Australia Institute's Ask an Economist -- with Matt Grudnoff, senior economist at the Australia Institute, and Richard Denniss, chief economist at the Australia Institute.

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[marcuschamp]

Lets also recognise, its hardly a "natural experiment in low immigration" during a pandemic. Agree relationship between immigration and wages is more complex, but would have liked to have heard more acknowledgement the covid period is a very different experience vs pre-covid and there are multiple factors going on over covid that are impacting the outcome., that may well be offsetting the lower immigration.

[JamielDeAbrew]

Supply of a new worker doesn’t always equals demand of a new customer.

Eg pacific fly in fly out workers send a lot of their income back home.

Eg2 many European backpackers would save in Australia to spend in a 12 month Asian adventure

[testpuck]

Over a million pensioners are doing it tough. Pensions are very low at about $480 a week. Can you please help us understand why we are not worth a living wage.

[brendanjohnstoncove]

Wages growth during both low immigration and lockdowns is not a great experiment for low immigration and no lockdowns.

Anecdotally, in my industry, unaffected by lockdowns, there are more jobs available than there have been for many years. And there has just been the only (not promotional related) pay rise in 10 years.

I do wonder why economists think increases in demand increase prices. Most of the things I have made are cheaper if we make more of them, costs are mostly fixed.

[clipkut]

The employers knew that COVID was an anomaly, and they would rather weather the storm and not offer higher-paying long-term contracts, and wait for immigrants to be allowed back in. Anecdotally I can also say that after Brexit and the stop to immigration, the wages in the bar industry in London went up overnight. Before a junior bartender was making around 9£/hr and a senior bartender around 12£. Now 12£ is the standard even for inexperienced people, and sometimes you see 16£ for experienced bartenders, which before was literally unheard of. Same companies. So a 30% increase in wages basically overnight, thanks to the lack of immigration (but of course there is also inflation).

[maggieatlas]

consider the use of immigration & imported foreign labour part of a number of strategies to crush wage growth I do not think that can be disputed

[JamielDeAbrew]

Does Australia’s economic system rely on population growth? And does the world’s economic system rely on population growth? How does global population growth impact climate change?

[windwakerrules]

Does this include all employed people or just full time employment? Can't imagine uber drivers giving anyone a "wage growth"

[joecater]

I worked in a software dev firm.. some of the best colleagues and good friends I ever met.. but not a single person on in the dept that speaks English as first language and that cannot be an accident. The city that company is in is not mostly populated by foreign people.. it is mostly British.. this company pays nearly the min wage for all professional roles... devs, copy writers, account managers... all of them. Thats the truth.. they are leveraging people's desire to get to the UK in order to get cheaper labour and skills.. thereby pushing down wages for their industry. Sorry.. to say it.. but, I've seen it first hand in action. It just means how can anyone have aspirations to own an asset like a house by working on themselves and gaining skills ? ... they cannot if that happens on mass.. and in many cases.. these wages so low that anyone in one of these jobs cannot even afford a studio flat to rent.

Also, this is not universally true.. we in UK saw wages growth around this time.

[beesplaining]

The Coalition: the gift that keeps on giving! ...for the Lifters not the Leaners! (as defined by them!)

[bmwoutlander]

What does a nett zero or even negative carbon economy look like for Australia?

[davidwilkie]

Does "spreading the truth" involve explain the differences between preparation for war by suppressing the local population so as to make imports cheaper, and Arms Manufacturing Financing, covertly accepted by printing money? The principle is revealed in MMT analysis to fit the "Provisioning" planning of Defence programs.., pro-vision, ie looking ahead at threats to the ordinary person's pocketbook in this case.
This is the usual threat posed at Australian Elections, that everyone can "agree" on.

DIY analysis of Economics can only ever get to the Commercial in Confidence, or Military Security, freedom of information barriers, but anyone can assess genuine threats by themselves? Military Defence Spending.