Comments on: National and the wage gap

By: Sacked at The Standard 2.01

Sacked at The Standard 2.01 — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:26:30 +0000

[...] tried this path before and for most workers it meant wages failed to keep up with the cost of living because their rights [...]

By: The grass isn’t greener across the ditch at The Standard 2.01

The grass isn’t greener across the ditch at The Standard 2.01 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:10:10 +0000

[...] from weather) is wages, and the reason Australia’s wages are higher is they didn’t have 9 years of anti-worker labour law in the 1990s. Unions are much stronger in Australia and that translates into higher wages. Now, [...]

By: More bluster, still no policies at The Standard 2.01

More bluster, still no policies at The Standard 2.01 — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:01:47 +0000

[...] designed to sow discontent, not provide answers. No mention in the Nat’s press release of the wage gap they used to be so obsessed with, either. Because they’ve got no policy, no answer, only attack [...]

By: The wage gap and the Nats’ crediblity gap at The Standard 2.01

The wage gap and the Nats’ crediblity gap at The Standard 2.01 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:01:28 +0000

[...] there is still a wage gap and solutions to it require serious debate. But National wasn’t talking about the wage gap [...]

By: NZ Growing Faster Than Aussie, US, Japan, and UK at thestandard.org.nz

NZ Growing Faster Than Aussie, US, Japan, and UK at thestandard.org.nz — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:46:25 +0000

[...] in GDP per capita that opened under National has been partially closed and wages have grown after stagnating under [...]

By: The trans-Tasman wage gap at thestandard.org.nz

The trans-Tasman wage gap at thestandard.org.nz — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:50:40 +0000

[...] National’s policy on wages was deliberately designed to remove minimum employment conditions, restrict the ability of workers to bargain for higher wages, let the minimum wage fall behind inflation and [...]

By: How would Key make wages drop? at thestandard.org.nz

How would Key make wages drop? at thestandard.org.nz — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:13:15 +0000

[...] How could Key make incomes increase below inflation? Well, he could follow the example of the last National government: – Cut benefits or don’t adjust them for inflation; – Hold the minimum wage steady, that will not only make the incomes of those earning the minimum wage decrease after inflation but will also help hold down the incomes of those on wages near the minimum wage; – Hold down public sector wages by cutting funding, this will also hold down wages in similair private sector jobs (National frequently complains about public sector pay increases); – Weaken labour law, say, by weakening employees’ ability to pool their power in unions to balance the inherent power the employer has in the work relationship (as National did in 1991 with the Employment Contracts Act) or by giving employers the ability to ‘fire at will’ (as National now wants to introduce with the 90 Day No-Rights Bill); – And, through public spending cuts and the flow-on drop in consumer demand from the reduction in people’s wages, create higher unemployment, putting further downward pressure on wages through labour competition (this is exactly what happened in the 1990s) [...]

By: John Key’s plan to cut your pay at thestandard.org.nz

John Key’s plan to cut your pay at thestandard.org.nz — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:47:16 +0000

[...] talked about the wage issue time and time again on this blog and how the National Party has no answers on how to raise wages. They seem only to [...]

By: High Wages and Productivity: Where are the emporer’s Clothes?? « The visible hand in economics

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:57:49 +0000

[...] No one seams to be making this argument though. (please correct me If I’m wrong). Although The Standard does cite CTU economist Peter Conway who says the wage [...]

By: Tax cuts are not the answer at thestandard.org.nz

Tax cuts are not the answer at thestandard.org.nz — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:15:59 +0000

[...] and its allied business lobby groups would rather ignore. New Zealand’s low wage economy can be traced directly back to the Employment Contracts Act of 1991, which was deliberately designed to reduce the ability of [...]

By: National disses minimum wage at thestandard.org.nz

National disses minimum wage at thestandard.org.nz — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 10:07:07 +0000

[...] National are right when they say wages are far too low in New Zealand, but they don’t have any answers on how to fix it – just the same market-driven ideology that put us here in the first place. [...]

By: Joshua

Joshua — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:18:03 +0000

Very interesting graph, although perhaps for completeness it should be extended back to 1984 to show what happened during the Douglas Regime. This is not an argument that the ECA was not detrimental to wage conditions, rather an attempt to ascertain what kind of position the National government inherited in 1990

By: Matthew Pilott

Matthew Pilott — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:43:30 +0000

PhilBest, bash yourself once more with the ECON101 book yeah?

Do you seriously think that our economy is growing at 0.2%??

Roger Nome mentioned that our economy is growing at a rate 0.2% slower than that of Australia’s. Unless Australia’s economy is growing at only 0.4%…

With knowledge like that, I can see why you imagine New Zealand isn’t a developed (you used the backwards “first world”) nation. BTW Have you ever been to a developing nation?

Roger Nome – what I meant is that if NZ had WA’s resources, while it cotributes only 3-4% of Australia’s GDP, that would be a far greater percentage in NZ.

That would make Cullen’s comment accurate – the one TDS thought was clearly wrong…

By: PhilBest

PhilBest — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:54:42 +0000

At 0.2% growth per annum, how long will it take for OUR economy to double in size compared to an economy that is growing at 0.6%, or at 6.0%?

0.2% is PISS-POOR. NO-ONE is going to get the increases in wealth, living standards, and social services that we WANT and feel entitled to because we’re a “first world” nation. Yeah right.

By: roger nome

roger nome — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:55:19 +0000

Mat Pilott:

WA only represents about 10% of Australia’s population. Nuff said?

BTW – while not being overly significant in terms of wages, the mining industry certainly could be considered an important part of Australia’s export industry – remember, most GDP in Aus is accounted for by goods and services produced locally for domestic consumption. So while the mining industry only represents 3-4% of GDP in Aus it might comprise something like (at a guess) 10% of export $. So it certainly is important for the Aus economy in terms of balance of payments (i.e. stopping capital from leeching oversees).