The Federal Government has sent final letters to State and Territory Governments detailing the final offers of the Commonwealth’s contribution towards the pay increases for Social and Community Services (SACS) awarded in last year’s Fair Work Australia’s equal pay case.

The Federal Government has so far set aside around $3 billion to meet what it describes as ‘historic pay increases’ for around 150,000 SACS workers, who will receive increases of between 23 and 45 per cent in nine stages over eight years.

The Minister for Community Services, Julie Collins, said the Australian Government is offering the States more than $1.4 billion as its share of SACS funding for programs under Commonwealth-State Agreements. 

“We have always said we would pay our fair share and have addressed concerns raised by states about the original funding offers,” Ms Collins said.

“We have looked at the evidence they provided on their costings and we have improved our original offers by more than $300 million - from $1.1 billion to over $1.4 billion.”