The Government keeps reassuring workers that wage growth is just around the corner — as long as strong employment growth continues.

The logic is simple: the more Australians that find work, the tighter the labour market becomes, and the easier it is to bargain for a pay rise.

But a leading investment bank has warned that even its most far-reaching economic forecasts show no meaningful change in the unemployment rate.

Jobs growth slowing

Economists at the big investment bank JP Morgan argue the run of solid jobs growth is now basically over.

"We think the unemployment rate is going to stay well within that very tight 5.4 to 5.6 per cent range for the next little while," JP Morgan chief economist Sally Auld said.

"Our sense is that the pace of growth is not going to pick up enough to really bring the unemployment rate down in a meaningful fashion.

"For our forecast horizon, we have a broadly unchanged view on where the unemployment rate will be."

And, she said, it's unrealistic to expect the Reserve Bank can do anything about it.

"The Reserve Bank will be struggling to get an unemployment rate back to 5 per cent," Ms Auld said.

"But that's still not going to be enough to get sustained wages pressure."

Spend more?

The chief economist of the National Australia Bank, Alan Oster, agreed.

So if the Reserve Bank won't give the economic engine, and thereby wages, a bit of an extra kick along, what will?

Mr Oster said what's needed is carefully targeted government infrastructure spending.

He called on the Coalition to throw away budget politics and spend up.

"I don't have a problem with spending a bit more money to get the economy going," he said.

"You would be doing things like roads, transport, fast rail.

"I think it is time to keep the economy going a little bit faster than it currently is.

"At present it's growing at around 3 per cent, but, fundamentally, the consumer [spending] is growing at around 2.5 per cent, and until that grows faster, which is not enough to significantly lower underemployment."

Cut rates

In theory, the Reserve Bank could slash interest rates in the hope of giving both inflation and wages a boost.

It's certainly within the bank's official charter to do that.

But JP Morgan's house view is Australia's love affair with debt effectively rules that out as an option.

"I think it's really important to reiterate that it's not on the RBA's agenda anytime soon," Ms Auld said.

"If rates do come down by 0.5 to 1 per cent," she conceded, "what does that do to the state of household balance sheets, which are already, on most metrics, looking very leveraged?

"The cost might be that instead of debt-to-income ratios in the household sector sitting at 180 per cent, which is already very high, they rise to 200 per cent, which would leave the RBA with a household sector that was highly vulnerable to any economic shock from offshore."

Instead, Ms Auld said the Reserve Bank is comfortable waiting it out — happy to rest on its impressive economic track record, a record that shows, eventually, it will help bring about higher wages.

"They're one of the few central banks in the world that have nailed their inflation target over the past couple of decades."

"I think they feel like they can use some of that credibility."

Pay inequality

But a leading corporate governance expert has an entirely different take on how to boost your pay packet.

Thomas Clarke from the University of Technology Sydney's Business School just published a paper highlighting the pay gap between ordinary workers and executives.

"It's a compounding inequality which is both an economic and a political problem," he said.

"It's endemic and it's very serious."

The latest CEO pay report from the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors shows pay for company bosses is at its highest level in 17 years thanks to, "persistent and increasing bonus payments".

Professor Clarke said employers are actively holding wages down.

"These people have got to be named and shamed," he said.

"I think Malcolm Turnbull's intervention to say that things are getting out of hand is quite an important one.

"The majority of people are being held back over a 10-year period with stagnate wages, while a few CEOs are being rewarded with these massive [pay] increases for which there is no explanation."