10. DARIEN FENTON (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister of Labour
What steps has she taken to help raise real wages for low income New Zealanders?
Hon KATE WILKINSON (Minister of Labour) Link to this
We have undertaken a pragmatic programme of reform to help create jobs and grow wages for all New Zealanders. My approach has been to raise the minimum wage steadily so that jobs are preserved and people are not thrown out on to welfare. I have resisted pressure to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and destroy 6,000 jobs; I have introduced the 90-day trial period, which has helped create 13,000 jobs; and we have reformed the Holidays Act to make it simpler and to improve workplace productivity.
Does she stand by her assertion that the 25c minimum wage increase from 1 April this year will maintain the real value of the minimum wage when, in fact, half of that increase was wiped out in the first 3 months?
Hon KATE WILKINSON Link to this
The increase in the minimum wage was linked to the consumer price index at the time, and, as always, it is a matter of striking a balance between what is fair to employees—but not pricing them out of a job—and giving employers the incentives and the encouragement to actually take on more employees.
Does she believe she is doing all she can to help minimum wage earners cope with the rising cost of living, given that in real terms the minimum wage has decreased by $16.80 a week since June last year?
Hon KATE WILKINSON Link to this
As we have heard before, the after-tax average wage has actually increased by 7.4 percent, which, after taking inflation into account, is a net increase of 2.1 percent.
Is she aware that once inflation is taken into account, according to Parliamentary Library calculations Sam, the minimum wage worker whom the Government used as an example in last year’s tax switch, receives less net income each week now than in June last year, despite his supposed $6.30 tax cut and this April’s small minimum wage increase?
Hon KATE WILKINSON Link to this
We are aware that there are challenging economic times at the moment, but we would rather have workers in jobs than sacrifice them by increasing the minimum wage to an unsustainable and unrealistic level.
Why, in her unique position of being both Minister of Labour and Associate Minister of Immigration, has she not been able to put two and two together and realise that the $7 gap between our minimum wage and Australia’s minimum wage is one of the factors driving record levels of migration across the Ditch?
Mr SPEAKERWell, the member asked whether the Minister could put two and two together, and I guess the Minister answered that part of the question. I accept that it certainly was not the answer the member was looking for, but in respect of the way we word questions, we are vulnerable to their being answered literally.
I seek leave to table the calculations from the Parliamentary Library on the change in the real full-time minimum wage since June last year, showing that a minimum wage worker is actually worse off than a year ago.