That has been gradually sliced to 2.75 per cent with that expected on Monday to be cut to at least 2.5 per cent. It’s little better for 2020-21, which was initially expected to see wages surging by 3.75 per cent. Loading Instead, wages are tipped to lift by 2.75 per cent, a full half percentage point reduction on what Mr Frydenberg predicted in the April budget. Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said since the Coalition came to power it had missed its own budget forecasts for wages growth on 33 occasions. He said the cumulative shortfall between what has been forecast and what has eventuated for an average full-time worker since the Coalition’s 2014 budget is now $2200.

Since Scott Morrison's 2018-19 budget, the difference between forecasts and what has eventuated is $387. Mr Chalmers said it was time for the government to admit wages had stagnated on its watch. “The Liberals have presided over the worst wages growth on record,” he said. “Australian workers are paying the price for this government’s six years of economic incompetence.” Treasury and the Reserve Bank have consistently over-estimated wages growth since 2011 when Wayne Swan was treasurer.

Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers says the cumulative shortfall between wage forecasts and reality under the Coalition is $2213 for the average worker. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen At that point, the budget was predicting wages growth to accelerate to more than 4 per cent a year. Instead, it slowed towards 3.5 per cent. Every update since then has been too bullish, with wages growth slowing to an all-time low of 1.9 per cent in the 2016-17 financial year. Westpac chief economist Bill Evans is expecting Treasury to downgrade its wages growth forecasts by a quarter percentage point this year and by half a percentage point in 2020-21. He said there was a chance Treasury's new forecasts would prove to be optimistic, tipping they would be higher than what the Reserve Bank recently predicted in its outlook for the coming year.

“MYEFO is likely to still forecast an upward path, but from a lower starting point and with a more-gradual lift,” he said. Loading “Such a view would see MYEFO at odds with the RBA who now expect wages growth to move sideways.” The Reserve Bank, which has cut official interest rates in a bid to drive down the unemployment rate and lift income growth, has said that slow wages growth is the "new norm". Ahead of MYEFO, a coalition of aged care bodies and providers has issued a last-minute plea for emergency funds for aged care, saying aged care services around the country are in danger of closing without more support.

"MYEFO is shaping up as a tipping point," the groups, including Leading Age Services Australia (LASA), Aged and Community Services Australia and the Aged Care Guild, say in a statement released on Sunday. They warn residential facilities are incurring "unsustainable losses" and "there are grave fears for certainty of care". A recent analysis by LASA showed about 200 nursing homes – providing care to up to 50,000 people – are at risk of closing. It said $1.3 billion in extra funding is needed before Christmas. Last month, the government announced a $537 million package in response to the aged care royal commission's damning first report, with the bulk of the funds going towards 10,000 more home-care packages. But with 120,000 people on the home-care waiting list as of June 2019, the groups, which also include UnitingCare, Anglicare and BaptistCare, say a detailed plan to release and fund more packages "must be delivered" by the government. Earlier this year, the Health Department estimated it would cost between $2 billion and $2.5 billion extra a year to provide access to everyone on the home-care waiting list at the level of care they need.