Minimum wage rise to ‘put food on the table’
Working at a supermarket in south Auckland, Mark* earns $2 more than the starting hourly rate of $17 an hour.
He acknowledges the grocery trade is a traditionally low-paid employer, but says it is a struggle.
He knew of other supermarket owners who only paid minimum wage. ‘‘So the only way you can get a rise is when it is lifted by the Government.’’
Mark hopes the $1.20 lift in the minimum wage next month will help him to negotiate a rate of more than $20 an hour. Rent on his one-bedroom flat costs more than $300 a week.
‘‘The guy who lives in front of me is paying $700 a week and all his wages go on rent,’’ Mark said.
A quarter of people working in New Zealand are earning under $20 an hour, according to the Fair Pay Agreement Working Group report released in December.
Of these, 61.3 per cent were 25 years or older.
The lift in the minimum wage to $17.70 an hour on April 1 will be the largest increase in the adult minimum wage in dollar terms. It equates to an extra $48 for a 40-hour week.
First Union spokeswoman Alicia Burrows said most employment contracts had a gag order where, unless the employee was taking full strike action, they could not speak to media about the low wages their employer paid them.
‘‘It’s also, understandably, very difficult to get people to say how poor they are.’’
While welcomed by low-waged workers, unions and community support organisations, employers said they were facing higher costs due to the rise and other employment law changes. A survey of 400 exporters by ExportNZ found businesses with 75 to 120 staff members said the minimum wage rise would add an extra $120,000 to $800,000 to wage costs a year. Steep rises would particularly hit labour-intensive industries such as horticulture. The Government’s promise to increase the minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2021 will take it to just below the current living wage of $20.55 – the equivalent of $42,744 for a 40-hour week. Mangere Budgeting Services Trust chief executive Darryl Evans said the average Kiwi ‘‘doesn’t understand just how hard it is for struggling families’’.
The increase would ‘‘put food on the table’’, he said.
However, minimum wage rises tended to be followed by rent increases. Based on 1500 budget plans, the average family of four had only $39 a week to buy groceries after rental, electricity, gas and car costs were paid.
This had dropped from $83 about 18 months ago, which the trust attributed to rising rents.
*His real name, and that of his employer, have been withheld for privacy reasons.