In a week full of higher rates and fees for Canberrans, Jeremy Stewart was hopeful the Fair Work Commission would bump up his basic wages by a little more than 2.5 per cent.
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The 54-year-old security guard from Scullin will take home an extra $20 per week from July, a rise which may be barely noticeable after a week of 6 per cent parking fee rises and 9 per cent average housing (and commercial) rate hikes.
"It could be a lot bigger, I was hoping it would have been, but we have to take what we're given," he said.
"I live pay to pay – I would love to have a little bit extra over, but when you have any extra money you look at the bills and say I'll pay that one now."
But Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Robyn Hendry said the size of the bumps in the minimum wage and award rates were more challenging news for the city's businesses, despite recent improvement in confidence.
"Small businesses in this city are really feeling the pinch and the cumulative effect of costs, the cost creep to them," she said.
"The consumer price index [forecast to rise by two per cent in 2015-16] is obviously one indicator, so this is a real wage growth if CPI is taken as a base position."
Ms Hendry said the "not unpredictable rise", coming roughly half way between the unions' and industry's claims, had the potential to slow the expected recovery of the ACT economy.
"It's really not in response to this [wage rise] that employment growth is sluggish and businesses have been downsizing, but with softened demand we want to protect jobs," she said.
United Voice ACT branch secretary Lyndal Ryan said employees were the contributors to the economy, not the takers, and the pressure on businesses could be slated home to the federal government's financial choices.
"Why does the ACT government need to increase charges? It's because the federal government didn't help the ACT with the asbestos crisis," she said.
Ms Ryan, whose union represents security guards, said lower paid workers like Mr Stewart – who will receive $20.70 an hour from July, plus weekend penalty rates – did not take home the same real income rise and were therefore harder hit by CPI rises than those in professional sectors.
Employment across the ACT shrank in the the last two years but was tipped to grow by 0.75 per cent in 2015-16.
