The Reserve Bank governor, Phillip Lowe, said recently it would be a "good thing" if workers began asking for pay rises. Fresh evidence this week hints at some reasons for optimism. Here are three charts that show that now might be a very good time to push for more pay.
1. Businesses are upbeat
This chart is from the National Australia Bank's monthly survey of business conditions.
The result is a clear sign that, overall, employers are doing fairly well.
The good news was not limited to one region or sector - conditions ares solid across most industries and states.
What's more, NAB's measure of profitability is well up on where it was a few years ago.
NAB's chief economist, Alan Oster, said he was "pleasantly surprised" by just how upbeat the business sector is.
"In fact, there is even tentative evidence that we are now starting to see some positive spill-overs from the business sector to the broader economy."
2. The jobless rate has fallen
In just two months, Australia's headline jobless rate has fallen from 5.9 per cent to 5.5 per cent.
In NSW, the jobless rate now stands at 4.8 per cent - comfortably below the level economists say is needed for wages growth to accelerate.
The senior economist at AlphaBeta, Justin Fabo, says the falling jobless rate is consistent with other evidence of a tightening labour market.
"Firms have been reporting in the quarterly NAB survey that labour is increasingly a constraint on output. This has been a good leading indicator of the unemployment rate."
3. Firms are already spending more on wages
This graph from Fabo, comparing the official wage price index and the NAB labour cost index, reveals flickering signs of life in wages.
For the past two decades, official wages figures have tended to track closely to this measure of labour costs, which has risen in recent months.
NAB's Alan Oster says there may be reason for hope. "Wages costs were up in June, which, if continued, would be welcome from a consumer perspective. However, it's early days and may in part relate to the announced minimum wage adjustment."
In this week's episode of the Fairfax Podcast "It All Adds Up" the team is joined by Economics Editor Ross Gittins to explore low wages growth and the future of work.
The discussion canvasses some of the ways global competition and new technology might affect the way we work.
Workplace Editor Anna Patty finds out what it's really like to be a young person looking for work.
She speaks to Bianca Barnard, a 17-year-old job seeker from Richmond, who shares her journey of overcoming her anxiety about searching for a good job.
"It is quite daunting trying to get a job, because you have to go to the manager and you have to really wow them to get a job."
"You also have to have the criteria that they are asking for, experience, you might need a qualification, a diploma or something like that, which again takes time and not everyone is able to do that because of their age."
"I have been looking for quite some time now."
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