Minimum wage nz

2022 - 9 - 1

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Image courtesy of "New Zealand Herald"

Matthew Hooton: Time's up for most inept Government ever (New Zealand Herald)

OPINION: The Ardern regime has proven incompetent even at handing out free cash.

The repeal and replacement of the Resource Management Act will not be completed by the election. This Government has managed to "deliver" the biggest cut for at least 30 years in the real wages of the middle and working class — those a "Labour" Party supposedly represents. In social policy, Labour failed to deliver its teacher-union clients the end of school boards. No one knows what the billions for two new health bureaucracies in Wellington will deliver. We don't know where the $1.9b for mental health went. Prolonged border controls destroyed the international education industry, putting the viability of universities at risk. Now the data is in on real wages. It is paying for it in the polls (see graph). The rivers are not even being continually monitored to see if they are getting cleaner. Perhaps we should forgive them their confusion for, on everything except public emoting, it is clear that they know not what they do. what you're asking me essentially is to shy away from aspiration." Successive Governments have delivered slow but steady increases in real wages over the decades.

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Image courtesy of "Stuff.co.nz"

Call to lift minimum wage as low-income families face cost crunch (Stuff.co.nz)

Since Labour came into power, the minimum wage has increased 34.6%. But some say that's not enough.

The living wage is calculated to allow a household to lead a decent, fulfilling life.” That’s why we have always called for the minimum wage to be the living wage. It doesn’t mean that households get all the hours they need or want, to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head. It is set at the level that is deemed to allow workers to live a full life. It’s about being bale to have some time for your family, or for yourself.” “Low-income households, where the inflation is in rent, food, fuel, rates – that is core inflation you can’t avoid. But in pre-pandemic years lower-spending households had higher annual increases than the biggest spenders. “If you’re on the minimum wage or you’re in a very low-income household you can’t trade down. That’s rising faster than general inflation. The Household Living Price Index shows that in the year to the June quarter, all households had a 7.4% rate of inflation compared to 6.5% for the lowest-spending group. “At a high level, the minimum wage has increased with the CPI rate over the past couple of years but we know CPI is an average and so for low-income households over the past 10 years they’ve seen much higher rates of inflation than general households.” The minimum wage should be raised to the level of the living wage to ensure that lower-income households can fully participate in society, CTU director of policy Craig Renney says.

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