Minimum Wage raise to $12.75

[Mully]

Well, there was an increase - I'm surprised actually.

I did like the woman on TV1 news - minimum wage, husband on "not much more" and 4 kids to support. Complaining that another $10 a week wouldn't do much.

Felt a bit sorry, until they went outside and you saw the car with new plates on it. What's the bet that if I checked the rego, it'd be financed?

When I was minimum wage, I took training and education to rise above that. I suppose that's too easy.

[Donor]

I would have spewed if it had been cranked up to the $15 the part timers wanted...

I work in a skilled, professional role, and earn not much more than that again, so why remove the incentive for people to upskill themselves and get decent paying jobs?

[steve_t]

With all the media hype in the last few weeks suggesting a minimum wage of $15 an hour, anything less was always going to get complained about. I'm sure the $15 minimum was suggested by Labour - quite a smart campaign to attack National really. At least this time around they haven't interviewed people saying that the extra $10 isn't even enough to pay for the increase in a pack of smokes and that it means their kids will go hungry. I remember that and thought it was brilliant

[huff3r]

Yay! I get a payrise! If more places gave payrises for "up-skilling" i would be very happy, as it is my work gives me minimum and even though i can now do far more than my job description entails, i still get my $12.50 a week. Plus the little "petrol allowance" they give us doesnt nearly cover petrol costs, nor the other costs of running a car. Meh. Airforce here i come!

[sAsLEX]

Meh. Airforce here i come!

Counting your chickens before they hatch?

It aint the best this side of being a civillian.

But it aint bad either with this here recession still clinging around.

[gatch]

I would have spewed if it had been cranked up to the $15 the part timers wanted...

I work in a skilled, professional role, and earn not much more than that again, so why remove the incentive for people to upskill themselves and get decent paying jobs?

+1

As a 4th year apprentice, I'm still not on that, despite being skilled and productive in my work.

$15/hr for jobs that can be learnt in a month.

Scheisse !!

[mynameis]

Labour need a kick around their necks. They had frikken 9 years and sat on their ass, didn't do much now they want National to increase it to $15 an hour just like that.

Heck that's a 20% pay rise in these tough times without doing anything additional and when most aren't getting anything.

It will breed more lazies.

Will result in job loss.

Create barries for businesses.

Force a lot businesses to reduce employees hours.

25c increase, good call.

[h211]

As nice as it would be to get a bit more for the time being, it wouldnt be sustainable. At $15/hr the job market situation would be worse than before xmas!

[hayd3n]

4 year apprentice what trade?
4th year apprentice here aswell
just under $20 hr

[Ixion]

It's the people not even getting the minimum wage that I really feel for. Paul reynolds of Telecom gets $5M+ / yr. And a lot of people are trying to bring up families on $12.75 an hour. Is that really the sort of society we want ?

Despite what you may hear, it's NOT easy living on $510 a week. And people on the minimum wage aren't always in that position becuase they are feckless or stupid or lazy.

[Tank]

It's the people not even getting the minimum wage that I really feel for. Paul reynolds of Telecom gets $5M+ / yr. And a lot of people are trying to bring up families on $12.75 an hour. Is that really the sort of society we want ?

Despite what you may hear, it's NOT easy living on $510 a week. And people on the minimum wage aren't always in that position becuase they are feckless or stupid or lazy.

Actually yes - Thats exactly how I want to live.

People should be paid for their skills. My daughter started on less then min wage (training wage) then went upto the $12.50 - had a flat and a car to pay for. Now on $23 per hour after 2 months in this job (not related to training). People that work hard and try to move forward dont stay on minimum wage for long.

As for Mallards $15 - it was a cock and couldnt ever be done. And he knows it.

[mashman]

I guess that 10 bucks a week will be subject to the new employer and employee ACC levies, everything that has GST against it and won't really see any benefit once the tax breaks come into being. Factor that into your "pay rise" and i'm pretty sure the rise itself is much less than 10 bucks!

Pah! that's society for ya. Shit, the guy in the mailroom should be getting the $5+ mill... if he doesn't deliver the reports, memo's, communiques, then the monkey at the top of the tree can't make those all important decisions... ya know, the Ferrari or the Zonda today!!!

[gatch]

4 year apprentice what trade?
4th year apprentice here aswell
just under $20 hr

Machinist. I'm on 202 credits at the moment, need 290 to finish. Almost finished a stack of assignments worth about 70 credits. Next pay rise is at 250 credits and that will see me up to $16.50.

In contrast, my old flatmate did a few months laboring for an electrical company. Then started his apprenticeship on $18.50 and his own van/phone.

Bollocks.

[sunhuntin]

they had it on tv3 that after tax/gst going up, acc levies going up both on wages and vehicles [im assuming they used a car rego] and other stuff, min wagers would get about $6/week in the hand.

my weekend job reacted a week or so ago and made the decision to close on sundays. that means staff across the country are losing a days wages, myself included. and still they expect the managers to trim hours elsewhere. and yeh, we are on min wage.

[R6_kid:Me]

In 2007 I went to work full-time for $17.50/hr in an office job where I was taught my role on the job. I only had 5th & 6th Form Computer Studies/ICT as a qualification and had done a little it of Computer Science at Uni. That role developed and changed over the course of the year before I went to Outward Bound for my 21st where they 'let me go' because I'd taken too much leave in the year. Next thing I know I get back from OB and I have 5 missed calls from the temp agency that placed me with that company asking if I'd like to go back and work there for $18.50/hr in a different role which was less busier than the previous job. I ended up doing my managers job while she browsed the internet most of the day. Three months later 'cost control' came in from Aussie and they gave me two weeks notice and made my manager start doing her job, negating the need for me to be there. I ended up going into another admin type office job, which took me 2-3 days to learn in it's entirety and by the end of the week I was up to speed with another guy who'd been there for a month - we we're on $20/hr which works out to just under $40k and our only experience was that we had worked in an office before. I wouldn't consider doing that long term, and I only work for 'shit' money when I'm desperate (like at the moment) and that is for part-time work which I can understand.

If you want good money you have to have a good attitude and be well presented. That will usually get you in the door at a decent sized company. Small fish go for small jobs and get small pay, if you want to earn reasonable money you have to work for it but once you're in the game it's not hard to support yourself, have some toys and upskill yourself all at the same time. But you have to decide whether you want a job or a career, and I certainly would hope that if you are after a career that you aren't on minimum wage unless you are an apprentice.