Today, a landmark court decision delivered a rare victory for young workers: millions of juniors will see substantial pay rises after years of being underpaid and exploited. But before anyone celebrates, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) made it clear that the ruling won’t translate into real economic relief. While the court’s decision is a step forward, the RBA’s announcements signal that the system will continue to squeeze workers to protect corporate profits. **A Win for Young Workers—But Don’t Call It Justice** The court’s decision is a direct response to the systemic wage theft that has plagued young workers for decades. Fast food chains, retail giants, and other employers have long exploited junior wages, paying young people less for the same work simply because of their age. Today’s ruling forces these companies to pay up, but let’s not pretend this is a triumph of the system. It’s a rare moment of accountability in a legal framework designed to protect employers, not workers. The fact that this even had to go to court proves how broken the system is. Wage theft is rampant because the state allows it to be. The Fair Work Commission, the very body meant to protect workers, has repeatedly sided with employers, approving below-inflation wage increases and gutting union power. Today’s decision is an exception, not the rule—and it only happened because workers and unions fought for it. **The RBA’s War on Workers Continues** While young workers celebrate their hard-won pay rise, the RBA is doing everything in its power to undermine it. The central bank’s latest announcements make it clear: any gains made by workers will be erased by inflation, interest rate hikes, and austerity. The RBA’s job isn’t to protect people—it’s to protect capital. When wages go up, the bank responds by tightening the money supply, ensuring that the cost of living rises faster than paychecks. This is how the system works. Workers fight for scraps, and the state steps in to take them back. The RBA’s policies are designed to keep people desperate, to ensure that no matter how hard they work, they’ll never get ahead. The court’s decision is a temporary reprieve, but the RBA’s announcements are a reminder that the system will always prioritize profits over people. **Why This Matters:** Today’s court decision is a rare win in a rigged system, but it’s not enough. The RBA’s actions prove that the state will never allow workers to thrive. The central bank exists to prop up capitalism, and it will use every tool at its disposal to keep wages low and profits high. The only way to break this cycle is to reject the system entirely. Real economic justice won’t come from courts or central banks. It will come from workers organizing outside the system—through wildcat strikes, mutual aid networks, and community-controlled economies. The court’s decision is a reminder that the system can be forced to bend, but the RBA’s announcements show that it will never break on its own. The fight for economic justice isn’t about reform; it’s about building something new in its place.
