STIMULUS: Help with apprentice wages

To help businesses through the coronavirus pandemic, the Australian government is offering to pay half of an apprentice or trainee’s wages at an eligible business for the first nine months of this year.

The government said employers would be reimbursed up to a maximum of $21,000 per eligible apprentice or trainee, which works out to be $7000 per quarter.

The subsidy will be available to printers and any small businesses employing fewer than 20 full-time employees, who retain an apprentice or trainee who was working with the small business on 1 March.

The subsidy will be available to businesses after an Australian Apprenticeship Support Network provider undertakes an eligibility assessment.

The government expects the measure to support up to 70,000 small businesses employing about 117,000 apprentices or trainees.

Businesses can register for the subsidy starting in early April, and final claims for payment must be lodged by the end of the 2020 calendar year.

Further information is available from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment website at: www.dese.gov.au and at Australian Apprenticeships website at: www.australianapprenticeships.gov.au. 

For more information on the entire stimulus package, see the fact sheet from the Treasury.