Non-Enforcement of Minimum Wage Laws and the Shifting Protective Subject of Labour Law in Australia: A New Province for Law and Order?

Abstract

This article explains the trajectory of minimum wage laws in Australia, from their initial characterisation as ‘sacrosanct’ following the Harvester judgment to their current status as routinely violated, in terms of changes in the protective function of labour law in Australia. Through a comparative historical analysis, we argue that state actors have consistently used minimum wage laws to make moral interventions in labour relationships to protect the viability of particular employment relations actors, although the focus of those interventions has shifted from employees towards employers. Reconnecting the ‘how’ of wage minima enforcement with the ‘who’ and ‘why’ of labour law protection also contributes to explaining long-term continuities in the functional exclusion of particular employee groups from protection, namely non-citizens and workers in non-unionised industries, despite the prima facie universalism of current wage laws.