The Minister of Labour, Kate Wilkinson, will shortly announce whether the minimum wage will increase from 1 April this year. I’m hoping the increase will be more than last year’s miserly 25 cents an hour for our lowest paid workers.
The debate began this morning with Helen Kelly vs Phil O’Reilly on Business Breakfast.
Unions are arguing for more, but agree that $15 an hour is a good first step. They are also campaigning on the $15 minimum – at Skycity Casino, for example, unions have been taking action over one of their claims – a $15 an hour minimum for any worker employed at Sky – and given that Sky City employs workers doing the same jobs in Australia for at least the Australian minimum wage, which was increased to A$15 a hour last year, I think this is a reasonable ask.
Business NZ says the minimum wage should at least stay as it is : at $12.75 an hour.
There’s a good case for the minimum wage to be increased substantially, given big increases in food and living costs over the past year, along with GST and petrol price hikes. It’s not just about helping struggling families, but also helping the economy, as low-income households are more likely to spend any additional income.
Labour supports a $15 minimum wage and Trevor Mallard has a members’ bill in the ballot that would implement this from 1 April this year.
Some of you will say there should be no increase – and perhaps a decrease – and some of you believe that fair wages for low income families are a critical part of New Zealand’s economic recovery to have their say as well. You know where I stand on this issue, but here’s your chance to have your say.
Let me know.
Adjust it to compensate for inflation them. No more, however.
I do love it when Righty assistants ration out drippings from the lord’s table to the serfs
To really connect each end of society with the other, tie the threshold for a 50% top tier income tax at 20x the minimum wage.
Doing this will produce lots of useful market signals to the wealthy.
If the inflation rate is 4% then the govt/rbnz have failed to meet the policy target agreement to keep inflation between 1-3%. That is unstable growth.
Dylan it’s 1-3% over the medium term, and 4% when as a conseqeunce of a one off GST increase is actually fairly good news for the RB, predictions they won’t increase the OCR till later in the year appear to be accurate.
I’ll stay with a $14 minimum wage this year and $15 next year. It’s useful if existing governments prepare the way – hand over the baton to their successors … .
Before making a choice about society cohesion in the way it is then adjusted in future years.
Do we simply index it to the Oz minimum wage level, our CPI, our average wage or the top tax rate threshold (2* average wage c$100,000) or the pay of MP’s (I prefer 3 * the average $150,000 at the moment for MP’s) – or some sort of average.
I do love it when Righty assistants ration out drippings from the lord’s table to the serfs
I do love it when the Lefty peasants try to sound smart and witty but end up sounding like snooty talking heads like Keith Olbermann in the states. Oh, hang on, you guys never do things on your own do you? No. First you organise a committee on what you’re going to say, with two sub-committees each figuring out the exact wording of the statement and how to make sure it doesn’t minorities, the LGBT community, Islam (but not Christianity, no you can rag on them all you like) and the all powerful Ivory tower academic (Michael Cullen).
And then you express the collective opinion of the group, claiming it’s representative of all NZ, when in reality it’s on representative of the hardcore socialist left. No there’s no individuals, mainly because the intellectual horsepower is lacking from each of you, so you hope if you together scream loud enough people will think you’re smart. Case in point: Unite union.
Am I close? Because we on the right certainly see ourselves as the lord dolling out rations to the serfs, we in no way want people to take more responsibility for their own lives, instead of claiming repression and racism and all the other nonsense. We in no way want our culture to be a meritocracy where you are rewarded and valued for being successful and the best at your job, no we just want to stamp on the serfs (as you so eloquently described the minimum wage earners) for laughs.
So, from the minimum wage to Labour’s pro islam anti christian, ivory tower academic, Michael Cullen
Way to lose your cool, and the argument
Gordie – if it is to be increased to cover rate of inflation it would need to take account of the times it wasn’t so increased to bring it into true line.
Dylan, it’s possible to raise a person’s wages and actually for them to become more productive either because their spirit is lifted or other means.
Some people will give 100% no matter what they are paid because of a sense of personal ethic to do just that but some wont. People like to be valued and if they have the kind of employer who always speaks in terms of bottom lines, profit etc the employees learn that employer values money, the less they are paid the less valued they feel.
This does not apply to all employers or all employees.
@gordie – dont you like democracy?
Why don’t they raise the minimum wage to match the rate of inflation otherwise your actually earning less and with higher costs ACC, petrol, groceries, GST, your not bringing home more money.
Didn’t John Key say he couldn’t live on the current rate of the minimum wage ?
I what does committees, Michael Cullen and religion got to do with raising the minimum wage ? ? ?
And actually if you raise the minimum wage your giving people more responsibility, more freedom, more choice and a higher standard of living ! Which I thought what would be the kind of thing National supporters believed in.