minimum wage

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A “Culture of Entitlement”?

Written By: - Date published: 3:39 pm, August 17th, 2017 - 48 comments

With the current dialog about welfare, It is time to look at the people who are the real  beneficiaries, of the welfare system.

Who use the educated and healthy  workforce our system provides

The people who say “everyone should stand on their own two feet”, “you don’t work you don’t eat”,  and “take personal responsibility”,

The business sector.

Why National had to settle the Pay Equity case

Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, April 19th, 2017 - 45 comments

National is trying to give the impression that it settled the pay equity case out of the goodness of its heart.  The reality is that the Unions forced it to settle through gritted teeth.

The Mayoral candidates and the living wage proposal

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, September 4th, 2016 - 29 comments

I attended the Living Wage People’s assembly this week in St Matthews in the City.  The idea behind the meeting was to get Mayoral and Waitemata ward candidates to express their views on the living wage proposal as well as improved public transport services and rental accommodation standards.  The organiser was Living Wage Aotearoa who have been […]

Spark – kudos

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, August 15th, 2016 - 30 comments

Our wages are too low generally, and this is one of the main economic challenges that we face. A few more employers committing to paying a living wage would be a good place to start.

This is why we need a living wage

Written By: - Date published: 3:25 pm, June 30th, 2016 - 60 comments

It is tragic that a family working 80 hours a week cannot make ends meet.

Taihoa on Immigration?

Written By: - Date published: 9:42 am, June 7th, 2016 - 213 comments

Winston Peters has called for a slashing of migrant worker numbers and for screening of would be workers based on things like their attitude to women. Is it time for a taihoa on immigration or is Winston just doing a Trump?

The great big list of John Key’s big fat lies (UPDATED)

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, January 27th, 2016 - 76 comments

How many more lies will John Key tell today in his so-called State of the Nation address? Virtual chocolate fish to whomever guesses the closest number.

Child poverty has been monitored – now what?

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, December 18th, 2015 - 104 comments

A guest post from McFlock on what we might do about poverty when the talking’s done.

Food Bank Charity

Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, October 30th, 2015 - 97 comments

Guest post from Kōrero Pono on the politics and ethics of food banks.

Making Like Private Frazer

Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, September 14th, 2015 - 20 comments

Political awakenings.

2.1 Times More Likely to get a pay rise…

Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, September 2nd, 2015 - 6 comments

If you still wonder WHY anyone would want to join a union, the fact that union members are 2.1 x more likely to get a pay rise might make you wade through the anti-union propaganda. Some unions escape scorn, like the Police Union which is referred to as an Association. It’s probably an oversight though, not anything deliberate…

Dear Maccas, Burger King and Wendys, about those zero hour contracts

Written By: - Date published: 4:56 pm, April 10th, 2015 - 11 comments

Following its success in persuading Restaurant Brands to do away with zero hour contracts Unite Union has set up a webpage where people can email these organisations.

The “Brighter future”.

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, March 21st, 2015 - 34 comments

Labour, in 1984, with Richard Prebble and Roger Douglas, promised that if we adopted their prescription we would have a “Brighter Future”. Ruth Richardson in the 90’s promised a “Brighter Future”. Again in 2014 John Key’s National promises a “Brighter Future”.

A “Brighter Future”. For whom?

 

‘Ditch the [misleading] rhetoric’

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, December 12th, 2014 - 16 comments

On RNZ this morning PSA National Secretary Richard Wagstaff criticised Bill English for his misleading rhetoric about rises in “average wages”.  NZ’s income and wealth gaps have increased in recent decades.  The lowest income remain low; the top earners get big salary increases.

This is not business as usual. This is not some hippy over-reaction. This is serious shit!

Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, December 11th, 2014 - 55 comments

New author Mandy Hager joins us with some reflections on having become a grandmother: “So that’s why I’m speaking out now, every opportunity I get. Not because I like the exposure (shudder), but because I love this tiny little person and I will fight for his future, come what may. It’s the right thing to do. …”

Hiding the government’s failure on poverty

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 17th, 2014 - 81 comments

Thanks to Radio New Zealand, we now know that National got no real plan to address poverty, but also that they really, really don’t want to be honest about it.

Boots Theory: Numbers are meaningless when families are living in cars

Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, October 5th, 2014 - 137 comments

There’s something obscene about the way the economic story gets framed: the figures on a page, the points on an index, the number of dollars someone can swap for a number of different-coloured dollars, when people are suffering.

The hairdressers of Levin and Foxton

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, September 13th, 2014 - 44 comments

John Key reckons increasing the minimum wage would hurt “the hairdressers in Levin or Foxton”. So Rob McCann, Labour’s candidate for Ōtaki, asked one how she felt about that.

Parker nails English on economic policy

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 32 comments

Labour has the bold set of policies to take New Zealand forward into the 21st century – National’s “same old same old” tinkering will see the Kiwi skiff swamped. That was the clear conclusion from the debate between David Parker and Bill English on National Radio this morning.

Polity: Minimum wage rises do not cause unemployment

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, July 16th, 2014 - 48 comments

In the cartoon world of Economics 101, there is perfect supply, perfect competition, perfect demand, perfect information and prices for labour (and everything else) are set at their true market values. The real world is somewhat different.

Occasionally Erudite: Please, Labour, stop trying to link everything to the housing crisis

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, May 21st, 2014 - 99 comments

Jono at Occasionally Erudite has this advice to offer the strategy team at Labour. Make sure pushing of theme(s) this election doesn’t get snagged into the irrelevant that doesn’t have much to do with it. For instance “…are people currently earning minimum wage really likely to be even close to getting into the Auckland, Christchurch or Wellington housing markets?”

Trickleup

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, January 26th, 2014 - 207 comments

There has been an abundance of research showing that communities and societies function better when their resources are shared around.  But the need to persuade ordinary people that this is so is the most important thing to achieve.  Because without popular support attempts to change the current system are bound to fail.

UBI

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 pm, January 7th, 2014 - 359 comments

New Zealand was once considered one of the best places on earth to live. It could be again …

A Tale of Two Cities

Written By: - Date published: 10:03 pm, December 19th, 2013 - 88 comments

It was the best of times in Wellington today. Council workers will get a living wage, and parking wardens will become council employees so they will get decent pay also. It was the worst of times in Auckland as the right-wing Scrooges having failed to remove Mayor Len Brown took it out on their workers by overturning his call for a living wage for Council staff.

Cunliffe stands strong for fair pay and your work rights

Written By: - Date published: 6:29 am, October 10th, 2013 - 139 comments

David Cunliffe showed that he wasn’t just pandering for votes in the leadership race by reaffirming and strengthening his commitment to work rights at the CTU conference yesterday. When David is PM the minimum wage will rise to $15 an hour, the public service will set an example by paying the living wage, and the Nats’ attacks on rights will be reversed – no more Fire at Will, no more youth rates.

“Predistribution”: From Miliband to Cunliffe

Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, September 23rd, 2013 - 41 comments

Ed Miliband got the idea of pre-distribution from Jacob Hacker. Cunliffe has followed.  Can “pre-distribution” underpin a new direction for the left in NZ: one relevant to the challenges of the 21st century, especially in countering the too wide inequality gap & re-instating social democracy?

UBI. (Universal Basic Income).

Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, September 5th, 2013 - 230 comments

The concept of UBI has a long history in New Zealand.

Of course, we already have a UBI for those over 65.  Which has been extremely successful at eliminating poverty amongst the elderly, at a very moderate cost by international standards.

A conservative view on low wages.

Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, July 25th, 2013 - 37 comments

It is a national evil that any class of Her Majesty’s subjects should receive less than a living wage in return for their utmost exertions… where you have what we call sweated trades, you have no organisation, no parity of bargaining, the good employer is undercut by the bad and the bad by the worst; …

Fairness at work and a living wage

Written By: - Date published: 11:57 am, July 21st, 2013 - 7 comments

fairness-at-work-thumb-3The Government has been warned that the Employment Relations Amendment Bill is likely to breach ILO conventions.  Bridges has responded by saying that the breaches “may not be significant”.  Why is it that the Government gets all hard core when dealing with beneficiaries legal obligations but is so casual when it deals with its own obligations?

Why Doug Heffernan wants you to keep paying too much for power

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, April 29th, 2013 - 49 comments

John Key has committed to giving up the National Party’s leadership if he loses the next election. That didn’t stop him from committing the next National Government from reversing NZ Power and putting up electricity prices whenever it comes to power . It got me thinking about the people who are so keen to kill NZ Power in its cradle and why. Today: MRP CEO Doug Heffernan.

Massive changes to employment legislation announced today

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, April 26th, 2013 - 137 comments

The changes announced today to employment law represent the most serious attack on the rights of working people to a fair go since 1991. As I wrote on this blog that the Bill will reduce the Employment Relations Act to a farce and the result will be wages are driven down and employment agreements broken […]

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