Australian wages growth has been the weakest in at least 17 years as the mining boom slows down and unemployment climbs.
Total hourly rates of pay, excluding bonuses, rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.7 per cent in the December quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.
The wage price index rose 2.6 per cent from a year earlier, the weakest annual growth in ABS data going back to 1997.
Annual growth in the wages index averaged 2.9 per cent last year, compared to the long-run average of 3.6 per cent.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia senior economist John Peters said this was an indication the soft labour market was slowing down wages growth.
"What it does show is the end of the mining investment boom," he said.
"Wages growth in the mining sector is 3.1 per cent, down from 5.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012.
"The Reserve Bank has been very clear it expected wages to moderate and the labour market to soften as the economy transitions from the mining boom."
The Reserve Bank of Australia has indicated it's counting on weaker wages growth to ensure core inflation remains between two and three per cent, after unexpectedly strengthening in the fourth quarter.
The consumer price index rose 0.8 per cent in the December quarter, for an annual rate of 2.7 per cent and the unemployment rate jumped to a decade-high of six per cent last month.
