Make-work don’t work
The Maori Party wants the dole abolished to be replaced by work schemes. It’s a bad idea but it’s not too far from […]
workers' rights
wages
Labour chickens out on $15 minimum wage
Labour, why do you do this to me? One day you’re announcing neo-Keynesian policies to help us through the coming recession, then you […]
Working our way forward
It was inevitable that the focus of media coverage of Labour’s announements yesterday would be the deposit insurance, it’s a good self-centred middle-class story. […]
Nats break into your piggy-bank
John Key has announced that Kiwisaver would be slashed along with National’s tax cuts for the rich (and they are tax cuts for […]
Will Labour back $15 minimum wage?
The unions want the minimum wage lifted to $15 an hour, two thirds of the average hourly rate, restoring the historic ratio. The […]
CTU on closing the wage gap
The Council of Trade Unions has done a lot of work on why wages are low for many workers in New Zealand and […]
Wage gap decreasing thanks to pro-worker policies
As The Standard first reported on April 1 and Radio New Zealand picked up today, Treasury figures show that the wage gap […]
Go the drivers
Wellington bus drivers are striking this morning and good on them. I was happy to find my own way to work today. The […]
Questioning politicians
We’re keen to help you get active this election campaign. That’s why we’ve launched Campaign Hub 2008 and its Facebook group to give […]
Greens good for workers
Work rights should be a big issue this election. National is proposing to strip workers of their rights to undermine wage increases. The […]
Disappointing
I just have to say, it’s incredibly disappointing that a simple prank, a google bomb, gets three newspaper articles and coverage on TV3 […]
National bleats about wages, still has no solutions
The National Party are once again trying to make political capital over the Trans-Tasman wage gap, even though they created it in the […]
Market failure
An article on Stuff today shows “Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale”. It’s based on research by Dr. Jamie Pearce […]
Social Report shows Kiwis better off
MSD released its Social Report today, an annual publication that collates a wide variety of standard of living measures, and produces this awesome graph. […]
Workers demand decent work rights policies
6000 workers turned out in Manukau yesterday for the EPMU’s Wages Drive rally. With 25 events nation-wide over this month, which have attracted […]
Did you say “wages”, John?
Watching Key on Breakfast this morning I was surprised to see him talking about the need for higher wages (about two thirds of […]
Academic, youse are paid too much
Professor John Gibson from Waikato University says public servants should be paid less because they get paid more than their private sector equivalents […]
Employment, wages up
Despite the economic slowdown, the labour market is holding up well and wages are up at the record rate. The average hourly wage […]
Workers stand up for their rights, Nats still evasive
The EPMU launched its ‘Work Rights Wage Drive’ today with a rally in Christchurch. Despite the rain, over 1500 Kiwi workers turned out […]
Lucky Aussies, they kept their work rights
Some of our friends on the Right have been putting themselves through strange mental contortions over the recent series of posts we’ve had […]
Larger slice of the cake for workers under Labour
The essential debate in New Zealand politics (and all capitalist economies) is between Right and Left over how big a share of the […]
Does anyone care about the gender wage gap?
I recently caught a story on the radio about the gender wage gap of new graduates – and in the failed search to locate […]
Fact: The Left has risen wages during its time in power
Inevitably, reaction from some to the post showing incomes fell 6.1% under National between 1990 and 1997 has not been horror at the […]
Fact: Nats cut wages last time they were in power
For anyone who still doesn’t want to believe that National cut incomes for most Kiwis last time they were in power (and would […]
Seeking better work rights
Seek has released analysis of the pay-rates offered by employers advertising on its site. It’s not a perfect measure and the figures are […]
Reaction roundup: Nats’ work rights policy
Democratic, voluntary organisations of workers: Finsec: “Within the current framework, many workers have been able to achieve real wage increases like the 5% […]
False idol
We’ve said this before but, seeing as BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander is in the Herald this morning saying ‘the October 1 tax […]
Key comes out against wage increases
This morning on Sunrise, John Key said “wage inflation” is a problem causing inflation and needs to be reduced. Wage inflation is a […]
The right incentives?
National tells us that, if we put the right incentives in place, people will work harder and their incomes will go up. National […]
Bill to protect workers from labour-hire vultures
Labour, with the support of New Zealand First, has developed a bill based on Darien Fenton’s private members’ bill that will ensure tens […]
The grass isn’t greener across the ditch
The cornerstone of National’s ‘New Zealand sucks’ campaign is that Australia is much better (and we have to lower taxes and slash work […]
Act now to protect workers’ wages
Times are going to get harder for workers in the next few years. Unemployment is set […]
Slippery John’s “after-tax incomes” line
You’ll have noticed that Key only ever talks about increasing ‘after-tax incomes’. Even when he’s asked about wages for government employees, like doctors, […]
The wage gap and the Nats’ crediblity gap
Remember when National was all about the wage gap, whinging about it every day? Heard them talk about it lately? The last mention […]
National’s cruel hoax
Well the budget is out and across the country the public are looking at their tax cuts and asking “is that it?” and […]
Junk pay
The last couple of episodes of Fair Go have rightly taken aim at a distribution company – Reachmedia – that rips off young kids by paying […]