Dubbo Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Errin Williamson said wage rises have put pressure on businesses still recovering from shutdowns brought on by the two-year pandemic hiatus, yet many are prepared to comply.

Some sectors in the tourism, hospitality, and aviation industries will have to wait until October 1 rather than July 1 for the rise as their operational costs have increased while still in the recovery stage post-COVID-19.

The commission has granted some industries reprieve to take effect the wage increase from October 1 for those working in the aviation industry as aircraft cabin crew, ground staff, air pilots, airport staff and those covered by the Air Services Australia Enterprise Award.

In the hospitality industry, those to receive their wage increase later in October are covered by the hospitality industry general award, registered clubs award and restaurant industry award while in the tourism sector, those working in the marine tourism and ski resorts.

Aside from the national minimum wage increase, those workers covered under the Modern Award get a slightly lower wage increase at 4.6 percent.

But for businesses in Dubbo, Ms Williamson expressed her confidence the wage increase "will not be a problem across all industries" because some are already complying and paying above the $869.60 per week minimum wage".

"Not every employee in the hospitality industry is on minimum wage because we have staff on Level 5 or managerial type of roles and paid well above the minimum wage," Ms Williamson said.

Ms Williamson owns the popular Down the Lane on Macquarie Street and CSC at Church Street. Since leading the chamber, Ms Williamson has been campaigning to make the city attractive to investors and local entrepreneurs.

There is an estimated 235 hospitality and tourism businesses in the Orana region, according to the region's latest business profile by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

"Wages do go up most years as costs of goods go up. [The cost of] our meats, fruits and vegetables have gone up so I think inflation is expected and with that wages would go up as well," Ms Williamson said.

The chamber's members have yet to meet and formally discuss the umpire's recent wage ruling but Ms Williamson said ultimately "it will be up to the businesses to navigate that".

Most local employers are more concerned about skills and staff shortages in every industry as business operations fully resumed following the scrapping of COVID restrictions the recent wage increases have not been brought to her attention, Ms Williamson said.

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Last year, in the midst of COVID, while businesses started reopening following the easing of restrictions, hospitality workers received a 2.5 percent increase or $20.33 per hour as the lowest salary and small businesses feared it would send them broke particularly those in the catering and hospitality sectors.

"There is still a lot of pressure on small businesses because the cost of running a hospitality business is rising mainly due to the cost of products and doing business going up," Vicki Seccombe, western NSW regional manager for Business NSW said.

"The [wages] ruling equates to around $2.5 billion increase in annual costs to businesses across NSW. It's easy to forget that 98 percent of all businesses in NSW are classified as small businesses.

"A lot of businesses have not fully bounced back. They've had two years of reduced business and drought, fires and floods before that, they don't have enough back up."

Business NSW, the peak body representing businesses across NSW, has also advocated up to 3 percent on top of the 0.5 percent rise to employers' superannuation guarantee contribution but this proposal was rejected by the commission, Ms Seccombe said.

Under the new superannuation guarantee contribution by employers, the commission now requires employers to pay super from 10 percent to 10.5 percent calculated based on an employee's ordinary time earnings and regardless of how much an employee earns in a month for as long as they work over 30 hours a week.

The $450 a month earning threshold has been removed under the new ruling, thus even those working as a contractor, or private employees such as nannies, will be receiving a superannuation guarantee contribution from their employers for as long as their working hours exceed 30 hours a week.

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