Fat cats still getting the cream

Australia’s “fat cats” are still getting the cream.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that  the average weekly  earnings of Australia’s public servants rose by 6.3 per cent, excluding overtime, in the 12 months to the end of February this year.

That’s more than twice Australia’s inflation rate – of 2.9 per cent – over roughly the same period.

Average earnings, for private sector workers, rose by 5.4 per cent over the same time, on a similar basis.

However analysts see both figures as disturbingly high, particularly in the wake of events associated with the global economii crisis

They will also worry the Reserve Bank, which aims to keep Australia’s inflation rate within a 2-3 per cent range over the course of a business cycle.

The bureau’s figures show, too, that men are  staying well ahead of women, in the nation’s wage stakes.

It reported that men’s  ordinary time earning rose by 6.4 per cent, in trend terms, over the same period.

The comparable rise, for women, was just 4.5 per cent.

Despite these relatively strong wage rises, many Australian families are still finding themselves out of pocket, at the end of each week.

A string of rate rises, ordered by the Reserve Bank, has hit the finances of  thousands of Australians very hard.

That has shown up, quite clearly, in relatively subdued spending patterns, in the nation’s shops, over recent months.