Wages not rising to match inflation

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Tue, 19 Jul 2011 7:00p.m.

Everyday items are becoming more and more expensive, but are salaries rising to meet them?

Everyday items are becoming more and more expensive, but are salaries rising to meet them?

For more than 10 months Campbell Live has been checking on the price of a shopping trolley full of ordinary household items – and the price at the checkout has risen by 20 percent in that time.

Inflation is at more than five percent and food and fuel prices are higher than ever.

With the cost of living rising so steeply, should wages and salaries be increasing at the same rate?

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Comments

26 Jul 2011 10:30p.m.

Annoyed wrote:

And the government wonders why people are heading overseas to gain employment or higher wages. Its not helping those people who are keen to work, but with the wages not being competitive, its pushing those people away instead of keeping those skilled workers here. eg, teachers, nurses etc. As a young teacher, on average you earn less money per hour than those people working in a cinema. Why would you want to stay somewhere where you're under valued, when you could go somewhere else to earn better money. I'm sure this is throughout many other professions in NZ. Get your priorities in order. WAKE UP!! Too many people are leaving to chase the dollar.

20 Jul 2011 04:47p.m.

Anne wrote:

A rise would be so nice. Sadly I was made redundant in April and the position I took after this came with a 20% drop in pay. I had worked up in the previous company to a nice income for a 50 yr old female of $22.50 an hour. The new role pays $18.00 an hour. Supply and demand apparently. If we pushed for a retiring age of 60 we would have jobs available for the young unemployed and unemployment would drop. I am not saying compulsary retirement. If you want to work at 60 no National Super but give people a chance. Lets get the living standard in New Zealand back to what it was with decent wages.

20 Jul 2011 01:41p.m.

Dodger wrote:

The average wage is not a fair indicator of workers wage, as the wage distribution is skewed towards ridiculously high of a few, like the Telecom CEO, and the 1000/day of CERA members. These few people pulled up the average wage. A more accurate representation would be the medium wage which is probably around $18/hr. Fact, the majority of working population earns less than 26/hr. A small percentage of high earners earned more than the total of the rest combined. I can't believe that the unions don't pick on this.

20 Jul 2011 12:51p.m.

Wiseacre wrote:

Politicians and the media need to stop referring to the 'average' wage, and instead use the 'median' wage. The 'average' wage is skewed upwards by a relatively small number of very high earners (politicians, bank CEO's...) and pushed up by the loss of thousands of low wage jobs. The *average* person does not get the *average* wage. The median wage for all wage & salary earners (not counting beneficiaries)- whereby 50% of people get more and 50% of people get less - is $20.00/hour.

20 Jul 2011 08:43a.m.

Greg Giles wrote:

I question the statistic that the average hourly rate is 26 dollars. Is that for teachers, nurses and police on the job after 10 years. It applies to line managers in my organisation; its unreachable for me for at least another 10 years (=17) Come on John please back up your stats with some examples of whose getting what and where are they working, or is this kiwi's living in Aussie and you got confused.

19 Jul 2011 08:57p.m.

piere gielen wrote:

this is a lie.i am a union rep on a salary.employees on wages are in line to get a 10 percent increase.employees on a salary will not get 10 percent.progresive are lying.they dont pay overtime if you are on a salary.if we do get a pay rise they will cut our goal budget hours in our departments.if you are on a salary you are discriminated against.