Positivenews for working people today with the release of the employment and income statistics whichshow that more Kiwis are in work and notably more women are too.
TheCouncil of Trade Unions Policy Director and Economist Andrea Black is pleasedto see that wages are increasing, "The Labour Market Income Statisticsshow that the average wage has increased by 3.6% over the last year or over $40per week for an average full time employee. Interestingly there is a gendersplit with the average wage for women increasing by 4.3% and 3% for men. Ifthis trend continues we will actually start to see meaningful improvement tocorrecting the gender pay imbalance."
"Weare however concerned that the statistics around the Household Living costPrice Indexes which came out at the same time showed that high rent increasesare impacting low income people more than those on higher incomes becausepeople with low incomes pay a higher proportion of their incomes in rent thanpeople on higher incomes."
"Workingpeople need these improvements to continue and strengthen and not lose anybenefits of higher wages through increased rents. The passing of legislationsupporting the introduction of Fair Pay Agreements, alongside addressing thehousing crisis, is another way the Government can take action to secure abetter future for all working Kiwis," Black said.
