Australian minimum wage workers will receive a pay rise of A$19.40 ($25.37) a week, Fair Work Australia has ruled, in a decision that will increase the wages of about 1.4 million workers who are either on the minimum wage or rely on awards for their pay.
The decision will raise the minimum wage to A$15.51 ($20.29) an hour or A$589.30 ($770.79) a week - a smaller increase than last year's decision.
Workers on modern awards will have minimum rates increased by 3.4 per cent, which will mean a weekly pay increase of at least A$19.40 ($25.37).
NZ manufacturing businesses have a competitive labour cost compared to Australia and win supply contracts accordingly, bump up NZ's labour cost and some of this business goes back off shore = less local jobs therefore higher unemployment
Wade: NZ manufacturing businesses have a competitive labour cost compared to Australia and win supply contracts accordingly, bump up NZ's labour cost and some of this business goes back off shore = less local jobs therefore higher unemployment
So therefore NZ workers have to subsidise NZ employers by working for lower wages and salaries compared to other developed countries. This is what the "Employment Contracts Act" was all about.
The people most affected would be typically blue collar workers, given the option of continuous employ or short term gain I know what I would recommend ;)
i have been involved in manufacturing for a number of years and I can tell you from an exec level the companies I have been involved in do all they can to keep people employed and positive cashflow, the bottom line is manufacturing in nz is damn tough in present climate and raising minimum wage will tip ths scales the wrong way
Wade: NZ manufacturing businesses have a competitive labour cost compared to Australia and win supply contracts accordingly, bump up NZ's labour cost and some of this business goes back off shore = less local jobs therefore higher unemployment
So therefore NZ workers have to subsidise NZ employers by working for lower wages and salaries compared to other developed countries. This is what the "Employment Contracts Act" was all about.
What Wade is saying that NZ has an advantage with lower pay rates (and exchange rates) against that of Aussie. While personally I dont think a rise in the minimum wage would have a devastating effect on our competitiveness, it does provide a manufacturing advantage. If I am wrong, and raising the minimum wage did make us uncompetitive then those on the minimum wage end up going from $13 (or whatever it is) to $0, and therefore the dole.
Ragnor: You need a minimum wage as this prevents employers using their market power to push down the price of labour where we are all working in sweatshops because there are no other jobs.
However if the minimum wage is too high, employers simply don't hire more staff as hiring another staff member is more expensive than the gain from what the worker is doing.
as per the tv news the other night, some companies (manufacturers) are looking to lay of dozens of staff because they cannot sell their products any more. The reason they cant sell their products is because the NZ $ has risen, their costs have not dropped and they just cant compete on the global market.
in order to grow as a country, we need more skilled workers creating more exportable products/services which *can* compete globally. Ones that are not so badly affected by the exchange rate. We also need more employers in the industries that can create these products/services. Raising the minimum wage is not going to contribute to this goal in any way - in fact it quite possibly means less people will be motivated to 'skill up' and will instead continue to coast on the absolute minimum of effort. Raising taxes on employers and bumping up the costs of unskilled labour will also work against this goal.
Well said.
You do need a min wage, without question, but raising it by 15% is not wise.
And this is what happens when you do not pay competitive wages to skilled workers. A skills shortage is already predicted in the building trades to rebuild Christchurch within the next five years..
Only unskilled or people with skills that aren't in demand get paid the minimum wage though...
Skilled trades-people (who are in demand) leaving is not related to the minimum wage.
Higher wages in Australia are largely being propelled by the mining industry. Australia is selling it's mineral wealth to the Chinese for loads of money.
Time will tell whether we are smart to sit on our mineral wealth and not exploit our environment. A lot of people think Australia will eventually suffer from Dutch Disease: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease
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