On May 19, 2026, Oxfam Australia’s media release – Australian billionaires’ wealth grows by $50,000 per minute – informed us of the growing inequality in Australia, a country that promotes a ‘legend’ that egalitarianism is at its core. I will discuss their research in detail at another time but the results are stunning. In a population of 28 million, the “20 richest Australians hold more wealth than the bottom three million households”. While most of the population are struggling with “rising rents, grocery prices and energy bills”, the top-end-of-town have had a “bumper year” increasing their wealth by around $A50,000 per minute. That should frame our response to Tuesday’s (June 2, 2026) decision – Annual Wage Review 2026 – by the Fair Work Commission, Australia’s minimum wage setting authority, which increased the National Minimum Wage (NMW) by 6 per cent. A further cohort – those on minimum awards were given a 4.75 per cent increase in their wage. Against the current CPI growth, that increase provides for some modest real wage increase for the lowest paid workers in Australia. Of course, the employer groups are up-in-arms as usual claiming that the increase (and flow-ons – see below) will devastate employment growth and all the usual bunk as they post record profits. Fortunately, the FWC mostly ignored the bleating of the bosses. But compared to what is happening at the top of the income and wealth distribution, this change to the NMW is trivial to say the least.