Minimum wage goes up by 25 cents an hour

[PC]

Low-paid workers will get another $10 a week in their pay packet following today's announcement of a two percent increase in the minimum wage.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...-cents-an-hour

Better get a rent rise in there quick before they blow it all on an even bigger flat screen!
(Just a bit of size envy).

[Austrokiwi]

I don't think I will be so worried about RFRM coming in; if the white feather brigade are too scared to raise NZs Mininum wage they aren't going to introduce anything as contentious and complex as RFRM.

[WBuffett]

This is a outrage, the smallest increase in decades, the capitalist fatcats in the National Govt still wanting to keep the working man down, very sad.

[captaincrab]

In Labour’s first term, they had a booming economy (inherited from the previous Government). How much did they increase the minimum wage by? Their annual increase were 55c, 15c and 30c.

[PC]

Outrageous is right!
I was hoping to get at least an extra $20pw off the tenants.
Especially since I'm losing my fat cat landlord tax perks!

And it's just not fair they have bigger TVs, Tivo, Sky, cars etc than me.
Won't anyone think of the poor landlord??

[donna]

Hilarious replies here.

Yes, it would have been great to see more go to the minimum wage earner - however the $$ to pay more have to come from somewhere and if businesses can not secure loans more readily then there will be less workers and more on the dole queue to compensate for the increase aye.

Cheers,

Donna

[captaincrab]

Yes, they are funny. But the reality is that scrapping Youth rates decimated the job market for them. Youth unemployment is now 50%
As Donna says the money has to come from somewhere. Better to give tax cuts than wage rises.

[Dean@Massiveaction]

Absolutely, I'm surprised they gave any increase. IT will only put more businesses under. Lower tax would have been the smart thing!!

[WBuffett]

Of course the money has to come from somewhere, from the rich explotiative bosses who reduce the employees life span by working them to the bone, they can afford 25 cents a hour extra, maybe they will choose the $500 bottle of vintage champagne rather than the $600 next time they are out on the town spalshing the money around that there employees earnt from them. And maybe just maybe when the do that they take a moment to think that the worker will be drinking a can of lion red if hes lucky, and won't be complaining about it either. A bit of perspective in these matters goes a long way

[PC]

Drink the cheap stuff??!
Not likely whilst it's a 50% deductible entertainment expense!

[Tan]

WBuffett, you forget NZ is the land of the small/med businesses.

From Ministry of Economic Development:
Of all small businesses started up in 1995,
71 percent survived into 1996,
56 percent survived into 1997,
47 percent survived into 1998, and
40 percent the fourth year into 1999.

From the Statistics New Zealand Business Operations Survey 2009 report:

97 percent of enterprises employ 19 or fewer people
89 percent of enterprises employ 5 or fewer people
SMEs account for 31% of all employees

We (the SME I work for) have dozens of commercial tenants trying to run small businesses. From them I have learnt not to be a business owner.

Sure, some do well but most owners don't appear to be making as much as their staff, and certainly don't get sick pay, 4 weeks paid holiday, paid maternity/paternity leave, paid berevement leave, employer kiwisaver contribution etc. This all is on top of the stated wage. The employer also pays ACC for themselves as well as the employee (although they won't use it as they can't take time off), on top of having the longest working week and a much higher stress level.

Us employees are on the pigs back

[CJ]

Agree with Tan.

On Breakfast this morning, the union rep used supermarkets as an example of companies that can afford to pay more. The reality is most business are small and an increase in wage costs will effect future hiring by them. With high unemployment, this is more of an issue that the wages they get.

[Son of G]

A different twist I have often thought of is:
What is the inflation rate faced by the lowest earners in the country?

The general inflation rate includes things like expensive new cars and meals at restaurants.

Ps: I think WBuffett needed to add that sarcasm mark to his post.

[Aston]

Low-paid workers will get another $10 a week in their pay packet following today's announcement of a two percent increase in the minimum wage.

Ten dollars is excellent news for these people. I can feed myself, on very wholesome food, for 3 days on less than that.

I can remember when I came out of school, nearly 50 years ago now, being on a very low wage. Whenever I got a wage increase... maybe a dollar or so, I went straight down to the bank and banked every cent of it.

Maybe I'm generalising a bit here but I strongly suspect that this $10 will buy another packet of smokes or a couple more beers in the pub.

[WBuffett]

WBuffett, you forget NZ is the land of the small/med businesses.

From Ministry of Economic Development:
Of all small businesses started up in 1995,
71 percent survived into 1996,
56 percent survived into 1997,
47 percent survived into 1998, and
40 percent the fourth year into 1999.

From the Statistics New Zealand Business Operations Survey 2009 report:

97 percent of enterprises employ 19 or fewer people
89 percent of enterprises employ 5 or fewer people
SMEs account for 31% of all employees

We (the SME I work for) have dozens of commercial tenants trying to run small businesses. From them I have learnt not to be a business owner.

Sure, some do well but most owners don't appear to be making as much as their staff, and certainly don't get sick pay, 4 weeks paid holiday, paid maternity/paternity leave, paid berevement leave, employer kiwisaver contribution etc. This all is on top of the stated wage. The employer also pays ACC for themselves as well as the employee (although they won't use it as they can't take time off), on top of having the longest working week and a much higher stress level.

Us employees are on the pigs back

If these small business owners are not so rich then why do they drive around in HSV's and drink high priced liquors like jack danials or henekin ? Someone is paying for that and more often than not its the workers who are doing that working themselves into a early grave to support their bosses business. Some may claim to be not earning much , but its probably a case of them not declaring much, all the cash jobs they do going straight into their pocket without being taxed ..while the worker has to pay PAYE on every dollar, how is that fair?