Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, February 8th, 2012 - 66 comments
Shame you couldn’t raise it to a living one though. The working poor will appreciate the extra $1000 per year coming this April, but it still won’t cover their bills…
Written By: - Date published: 7:09 am, December 1st, 2011 - 97 comments
Law firm Chapman Tripp has taken it upon itself to summarise the business community’s expectations for National’s second term. Back to youth rates, and that’s just for starters.
Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, November 11th, 2011 - 34 comments
Labour want to raise the minimum wage to $15. The Nats say that will cost jobs (they want to lower the minimum wage instead). Documents obtained by 3 News show that Treasury think the Nats are wrong. A vote for increasing the minimum wage will not cost jobs.
Written By: - Date published: 6:18 am, March 9th, 2011 - 54 comments
I/S at No Right Turn has done more excellent work. He’s revealed the official advice Kate Wilkinson was given on the minimum wage. The advice says there is a trade-off between jobs and the minimum wage, but even a rise to $15 an hour would cause an increase wages for low-income earners well above the cost in jobs.
Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, February 19th, 2011 - 54 comments
Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn compares the bailout of SCF investors with the Nats’ threat to change the law to deny some workers the minimum wage.
Written By: - Date published: 6:38 am, February 8th, 2011 - 77 comments
So John Key thinks that a 1.9% increase in pay will cover 4% inflation, and that’s all minimum wage workers are going to get. That 25c/hour won’t add up to a litre of milk at the end of the day, let along a block of cheese at the end of the week. A person on minimum wage will now get $437.24/week after tax, whilst JK gave himself over $1000 extra per week in tax cut.
Written By: - Date published: 11:37 pm, January 25th, 2011 - 56 comments
John Key says that he can’t increase the minimum wage by a decent amount. The excuse this time round is that a decent increase will destroy jobs. Well, let’s check that out a little bit. Is it really true that lifting the minimum wages destroys jobs? If it is, do the benefits outweigh the gains? And what about the cost of letting wages fall?
Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, January 18th, 2011 - 241 comments
When the government, eventually, gets back from its month-long holiday, it needs to review the minimum wage. To keep up with inflation, the increase needs to be at least 50 cents an hour to $13.25. If we want to catch Australia, we should copy them and lift it to $15.
Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, February 13th, 2010 - 13 comments
Protests are taking place around the country today against the National Government’s miserable 25 cent increase to the minimum wage.
Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, January 28th, 2010 - 20 comments
Written By: - Date published: 3:55 pm, January 27th, 2010 - 113 comments
I really thought the rumour that the minimum wage would only rise by 25c had been put out by the government to make their eventual 50c or 75c decision look generous. But for a change they’ve surprised me. This is the first time in a decade the minimum wage has been cut in real terms. …
Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, January 27th, 2010 - 93 comments
The Government is set to announce its decision on the annual adjustment to the minimum wage today. So what’s it going to be? The three main positions out there are: Business lobby: Hold increase down to 50c an hour ($13 an hour). Unions: Step-change of $2.50 an hour ($15 an hour). Labour: $1.25 increase this …
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, October 30th, 2009 - 15 comments
The Campaign for a Living Wage will be taking to the streets of Auckland’s CBD tonight to demand a minimum wage of 15 dollars an hour and an end to poverty wages. The theme is Halloween trick or treat. If you want, you can dress up as: (a) a Zombie worker who has awoken from …
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 29th, 2009 - 4 comments
The campaign for a $15 an hour minimum wage is gathering pace. Initially, Unite kind of set out on their own on this one but I understand they’ve got other unions on boards now. They need a bit over 300,000 signatures to force the government to hold a referendum. They’ve got until May 7, just …
Written By: - Date published: 8:09 pm, March 18th, 2009 - 93 comments
Key’s speech to the CTU today showed an interesting inight into how he thinks you lift wages. NZPA reports: He said it was not good enough for New Zealand to be in the bottom third of the OECD for per-capita incomes, but was cautious about tackling the issue by lifting minimum wage rates. “In reality, …
Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, March 11th, 2009 - 55 comments
I’m always amazed at the intellectual hoops the neoliberal right will jump through to try and deny low income workers minimum wage increases. David Farrar has a piece up today highlighting the case of Honduras, where they’ve apparently raised the minimum wage by 60% in one go, causing higher unemployment. This, he says, highlights the …
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, March 4th, 2009 - 24 comments
The National government couldn’t hold off democracy forever, so today we are graced with the first members’ day of the new term. And if we had a pro-worker majority in the House, today would be day of celebration. Labour MP Darien Fenton’s Minimum Wage and Remuneration Bill is up, which would go towards ensuring all …
Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, February 11th, 2009 - 33 comments
Yesterday I expressed concern about Unite’s referendum on indexing the minimum wage to two-thirds of the average wage on practical grounds while strongly supporting the idea in principle. Today in its editorial the Herald takes exception to the principle, complaining that such a move, even phased in over a three year period, would deny people …
Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, February 10th, 2009 - 20 comments
Great, through concerted pressure the Left managed to force a 9-cent an hour real increase in the minimum wage from National/ACT. A 9 cent an hour real increase is not much but it’s a hell of a lot better than freezing the minimum wage at $12 an hour and letting inflation eat it as National/ACT had planned. The decision …
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, February 10th, 2009 - 44 comments
The Unite Union has reacted to the Government’s miserly adjustment to the minimum wage by initiating a referendum on tying the minimum wage to two-thirds of the average wage. The principle behind the referendum is a good one. Indexing the minimum wage to 66% would be a huge step towards making sure our lowest paid …
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, February 10th, 2009 - 33 comments
I see the Maori Party has come out saying the increase in the minimum wage to $12.50 an hour isn’t enough, and that they still support both a $15 an hour minimum wage and a tax-free bracket up to $25,000 (about the full-time minimum wage income). Pity they didn’t do something about it when they …
Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, February 9th, 2009 - 34 comments
Phil Goff has come out strongly in anticipation of today’s minimum wage announcement from the Government with a call for an immediate increase to $13 an hour, rising to $15 over three years. As he points out, if National only increases the minimum wage from $12 to $12.50 an hour as the DoL suggests, that …
Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, February 9th, 2009 - 34 comments
There is a rumour in the Dom Post and the Herald that the minimum wage will be announced today and the Nats are going to increase it to either $12.50 or $12.40 depending on whether it’s Fairfax or APN you’re reading. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was true as John Key knows full well …
Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, February 3rd, 2009 - 23 comments
National’s excuse for illegally* failing to complete the annual review of the minimum wage is that it wants to ensure any increase doesn’t cost jobs. So, it seems pertanent to ask, does raising the minimum wage result in job losses? Every year, the Department of Labour, presents the Minister with a regulatory impact statement with …
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, January 28th, 2009 - 31 comments
As we reported on Monday, the Cabinet is set to review the minimum wage. The Labour Department recommended maintaining its purchasing power by increasing the mw from $12 an hour to $12.50. Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson will propose keeping it at $12, a cut in the real value of the mw (many expect there will …
Written By: - Date published: 6:22 am, January 26th, 2009 - 44 comments
In the Bay Report in December 2007, John Key was quoted as saying “we would love to see wages drop“. Inexplicably, the media at the time refused to accept the report of their small town colleague. Instead, they accepted Key’s various, contradictory excuses – ‘I was misquoted’, ‘I was joking’, ‘I was talking about Australian …
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, November 21st, 2008 - 33 comments
Workers from Farmers stores in the Auckland area will take part in a ‘Skinny Santa’ parade down Queen Street today to protest against their low rates of pay and for a $15 minimum wage. Most Farmers staff are only paid between $12 and $13.50 an hour and the company’s latest pay offer would give the …
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, October 7th, 2008 - 45 comments
The unions want the minimum wage lifted to $15 an hour, two thirds of the average hourly rate, restoring the historic ratio. The Greens, New Zealand First, The Progressives (I think), the Maori Party* and, oddly, the Kiwi Party are also calling for $15 an hour. Will Labour join them? Labour has an excellent record on the …
Written By: - Date published: 3:27 pm, August 4th, 2008 - 42 comments
Despite the economic slowdown, the labour market is holding up well and wages are up at the record rate. The average hourly wage is now $24, up from $21.90 an hour 2 years ago. That’s a 9.6% increase. Take away 6.1% inflation and the average Kiwi worker is still 3.5% better off than two years …
Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, July 17th, 2008 - 25 comments
The biggest protests during this term of Parliament were against National’s 90 Day Bill when it came up as a private members’ bill. In protests all over the country, over ten thousand workers turned out to oppose having their rights stripped. The Bill was defeated but National has not given up. National has signalled that the …
Written By: - Date published: 1:44 pm, June 24th, 2008 - 102 comments
Labour, with the support of New Zealand First, has developed a bill based on Darien Fenton’s private members’ bill that will ensure tens of thousands of workers are no longer ripped off by ‘triangular employment’ situations, whereby their effective employer contracts out the actual employment of staff to a labour hire company. It works like …
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