wages

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International travel perks for the people who got us into this mess?

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, March 16th, 2015 - 81 comments

The blogosphere leads the way in breaking a story about yet another sack of cash for MPs …

Gender pay gap still growing – of course

Written By: - Date published: 12:18 pm, March 7th, 2015 - 42 comments

Tomorrow is International Women’s Day. In New Zealand the gender pay gap is growing – perhaps because National abolished the Department of Labour’s Pay and Employment Equity Unit.

Key folds on pay rises

Written By: - Date published: 4:41 pm, March 2nd, 2015 - 82 comments

Key has folded on MPs’ pay rises. Vernon Small and others are covering events on Twitter.

Labour takes a stand against zero-hour contracts

Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, February 12th, 2015 - 92 comments

Zero-hour contracts are the perfect illustration of when “flexibility” in employment relations goes all one way.

The lie about productivity and wages

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, February 5th, 2015 - 49 comments

The Productivity Commission has a new report out which looks at changes in the labour income share, or LIS, from 1978 to 2010. The labour income share is described in the report’s summary as: The labour income share (LIS) measures the split of national income between workers who supply labour and the owners of capital. […]

Labour’s plan vs National’s plan

Written By: - Date published: 1:34 pm, January 28th, 2015 - 43 comments

The choice is clear.

Thumbs down for Joyce’s ministerial domain

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, December 22nd, 2014 - 33 comments

A new report shows that Steven Joyce’s MBIE fiefdom is failing miserably.  Meanwhile the MBIE is under fire for the major cost blow out of the Sky City Casino deal – another deal with Joyce’s imprints all over it.

Jobs That Count

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, December 17th, 2014 - 20 comments

The Meatworkers Union today launch a campaign for Jobs That Count – to try to get better conditions for these marginalised workers who face it all – seasonal work, dangerous jobs, casual and zero hours contracts and anti-union pressure.

‘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.

Local Bodies: Government Responsible for Invercargill Poverty

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, December 2nd, 2014 - 6 comments

The second annual Child Poverty Monitor was released today.  bsprout on Local Bodies on poverty and inequalities in Invercargill, “provides a good snapshot of New Zealand society”.

The casualisation of work

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, November 14th, 2014 - 147 comments

Zero hour contracts, where an employee’s work hours are determined solely at the whim of the employer, are becoming increasingly common. The implications for the fight against poverty are dire.

Hickey on the living wage

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, October 12th, 2014 - 22 comments

Excellent piece by Bernard Hickey in The Herald this morning.

Unaffordable housing & the culture of greed

Written By: - Date published: 11:17 am, October 4th, 2014 - 47 comments

Rental housing remains unaffordable for many.  The problem is the greed of investors & speculators,  supported by a culture in which housing investment is seen as a way to individual prosperity.

The only way National know to grow the economy

Written By: - Date published: 5:15 pm, September 10th, 2014 - 19 comments

On Firstline this morning, John Key tried to compare National’s and Labour’s policies by saying “You can’t grow the economy when you restrict labour laws.” It’s nonsense, and it’s scary.

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.

How Dirty Politics hurt low-paid workers

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, August 18th, 2014 - 28 comments

While the right tries to distract and deflect from Dirty Politics, it pays to take a look at who got hurt by Cameron Slater and his buddies.

Leading voices: TV debates

Written By: - Date published: 12:17 pm, August 9th, 2014 - 101 comments

There’s much to discuss on the two election-focused TV debates conducted over the last 24 hours. Prime TV’s new show: Prime Time with Sean Plunket – Bennett & Turei on poverty/inequality (Prime TV Fridays 9.30pm): TV 3’s The Nation: Saturday 9.30am

Spread the word: enrol to vote

Written By: - Date published: 11:09 am, August 4th, 2014 - 15 comments

Live News is reporting that 40,000 people have been removed from the electoral roll because they have moved address. Their enrolment update packs were returned to sender with the message: “gone no address”.

Labour – Raise the minimum wage

Written By: - Date published: 4:05 pm, August 1st, 2014 - 298 comments

Labour is promising to raise the minimum wage to $16.25. It’s the right thing to do. And it doesn’t cost jobs.

Local Bodies: Novopay Exemplifies National’s Governance

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, July 31st, 2014 - 26 comments

This National led Government is strong on ideology, weak on process and reluctant to accept responsibility. The Novopay debacle exemplifies all of these well. When questioned about Novopay, National Ministers will never accept full responsibility. Stephen Joyce has just announced that the Government will be taking over the management of Novopay after almost two years of stress and wide-ranging issues. No matter what National and its Ministers claim, Novopay is largely their fault, and taking responsibility and making apologies are not what this Government does readily.

Wages up – Work secure – Labour policy

Written By: - Date published: 1:03 pm, July 30th, 2014 - 165 comments

Labour has today released its Work and Wages policy. An immediate lift to $15 in the minimum wage, and a raise to $16.25 in April next year. 90 day free sacking option for employers to go in first 100 days. Core public service to get the Living Wage first, others to follow. That’ll put some money where it’s most needed.

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.

NRT: So much for the surplus

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, July 8th, 2014 - 40 comments

As was generally expected by anyone who’d been watching the actual economy rather than just the dairy exports, business profits are lower than expected. And there aren’t the jobs and pay increases in our “rockstar” economy. So consumer spending measured by GST is low as well. Meanwhile the price inflation keeps increasing government costs. So we are already on track for a large deficit next year rather than the government’s much-touted imaginary surplus. You have to ask why we deserve a government that appears to live more in a universe of wishful thinking than reality.

CTU: Why is the Reserve Bank happy with low wage growth?

Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, June 13th, 2014 - 124 comments

There seems little prospect for better wage growth if the Reserve Bank is to be believed. There is a high risk that growth peaks this year without most people seeing any sign of it in their pay packets. People are being forced into the job market because stagnant wages mean more people have to work for the needs of their households. At the same time harsher rules on social welfare benefits and the low level of those benefits force people into a job market where as the bank says, there is ‘elevated unemployment’.

Labour please take note.

Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, May 26th, 2014 - 71 comments

The more that National publicly adopts “left wing” “socialist”  party policies, such as “free” medical care for children under 13, keeping the retirement age as it is, and balancing the budget, the more they rise in the polls.

John Key’s bullshit about rising inequality

Written By: - Date published: 2:41 pm, May 14th, 2014 - 86 comments

In Question Time today.  John Key has rejected evidence such census statistics, as reported on RNZ, that the inequality gap in Auckland is growing. He crowed about his government’s record & launched diversionary attacks on the opposition. Update: Question One video; Transcript links – Transcripts & other links updated. #realbudgetnumbers

Green Party pre-budget policy launch

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, May 13th, 2014 - 10 comments

The Green Party will do a pre-budget economic policy launch: livestream here 11am 11.30am-12.30pm.They are pretty adept at interacting with Kiwis via social media, and on TV. They are grounded in grassroots activities, that link to their policies aimed at making life better for low-to-middle income Kiwis. [Updated#1: got start time wrong: #2 policy here – Green Investment Bank; news reports]

Polity: Economic plans compared

Written By: - Date published: 7:08 pm, May 12th, 2014 - 9 comments

Labour looks at increasing jobs, wage growth, and having the government run surpluses. National looks at a 1% wage growth after inflation after years of falling real wages and no drop in real unemployment as being a sign of a healthy economy? Yeah right. Most of the growth in the economy is simply passing wage-earners by. It is going elsewhere. That is National’s legacy: strong growth for the fortunate few, lagging and insipid growth for everyone else

NRT: All about distribution

Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, April 30th, 2014 - 29 comments

Distribution – who pays, who gets what – is one of (or perhaps the) key question in politics. It is the big problem with Labour’s new monetary policy. We’ve all seen how the theoretical ability to compensate the losers of policies which produce net gains tends to be forgotten in practice. Which means that the acceptability of the policy is going to depend crucially on whether Labour follows through on this promise.

National’s cows coming home to roost

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, April 26th, 2014 - 79 comments

As interest rates crank up in debt-laden NZ, we’re about to reap the consequences of 5 years of do-nothing, anti-worker, National government.

Does the National Party really not understand how unions work?

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, April 14th, 2014 - 64 comments

This article in the Herald gave me a giggle today. It refers to a cash payment being made to Parliamentary Services staff who are part of their workplace collective employment agreement. Similar cash payments have been denounced by National in the past – when it happened under Labour – and are being denounced by Don […]