Hidden in the number

On tv now, channel one,old program (?).
comparing prices now and then and other countries.

average income in NZ was soo high so I will never get there!
It must be heaps of people with HIGH income in this country that drags the average up??

They showed a chicken and said that the average NZ had to work 19 minutes to buy a chicken.
A chicken costs 10-12 dollars at the super market, who does earn 30 dollars an hour??

I am not even halfway to that pay!
I meet people, (females) that earn 10-12 dollars an hour and they have to work 60 minutes to get a chicken.

I felt as if this program tried to make NZ person that watch this program to think that it is just him/her that have a low pay?
,,so let's leave the country(?)

Had a quick look for what a chicken costs in scandinavia today and how long to work for it.

a checkout person in NZ has to work an hour to get a chicken while a checkout person in scandinavia would only have to work 15-20 minutes for same chicken.

I felt as if the person that had made this program totally lost the figures!
They tried to say that we have same buy power as other countries.
It felt fake since I think the average pay was way to high and not at all reflecting a normal Joe Bloggs in NZ.
someone else that saw it?

quote:Originally posted by Suzanne

I am not even halfway to that pay!
I meet people, (females) that earn 10-12 dollars an hour...
someone else that saw it?

I didn't see the programme, but I do know this:

The minimum wage for employees aged 18 years and over rose to $11.25 an hour before tax on 1 April, 2007.

So it's not actually legal for anyone to be paid $10 per hour unless they are under 18.

If someone wanted to find labouring or cleaning work in the Bay of Islands, $11.25 per hour is probably what they would be paid too. If you want to make more money, you need to move to a larger city where the pay rates are higher. Those of us who choose to live in rural areas -- and in fact the whole of NZ -- do it for lifestyle reasons, not for the money

Here's something more:

Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) to the Minister of Finance: Is it the Government’s policy that a person earning less than the average full-time wage of $46,002... (dated 9th October 2007)

So, the average wage in NZ is $46,002 per year or $22.12 per hour. Quite a bit less than $30 isn't it?

It sounds as though some of the statistics in that programme were a bit dodgy. Which reinforces even more that NZ is a low-wage country. None of us live here for the money, we could certainly make more by living in a High-Rise Apartment block in Hong Kong. But who would want to [xx(]

I couldn't be bothered watching that. There have been so many programs comparing NZ & OZ and NZ always comes second. I lived in Oz for about 15 years, I had some good paying and some low paying jobs and enjoyed my time there. But even though by Oz standards I'm virtually destitute I would not swap the big dollars for the life I have now.

the tv program said 60 k was average NZ pay per year.

where is the line between working rurally or not?
how many has it to be in a town not to be a rural work?
I know of both females and males working in one of NZ top 10 largest cities and getting no more than 13-15 dollars an hour even though they are people with many years in work life.

Just 5 years ago I did go to work interviews wher I was offered 8 dollars an hour even though it was 9 dollars an hour that was lowest pay at that time!

someone that knows how much a "check out girl" gets per hour in for instance Auckland/Christchurch?

quote:Originally posted by Suzanne

someone that knows how much a "check out girl" gets per hour in for instance Auckland/Christchurch?

Our son Ben was working on the checkout at the supermarket near our Auckland house. He was 19 years old at the time and was being paid a little above the minimum legal wage at the time. Larger employers cannot afford to break the rules or it gets very expensive with fines in the employment court.

You may find some small businesses who break the rules by paying their staff in cash below the minimum wage. But then it only takes someone to dob them in and they are in big trouble

I am also virtually destitute, but prefer my life here.
BUT I think that those programmes should get it right and compare a person in a profession and how it would be in same profession going to another country.
They had this really good way of comparing how much you have to work to get this chicken,,but they had the country average income that was way too high compared to what normal people earn.

average income is not refelcting what people actually do earn.

Would have liked to see for instance the check out girl or the bus driver or the librarian and in a comparasion rurally/urban/country.

Susanne - you are so right. The average wage that this Govt and obviously Bill English quoted is NOT the average wage. It also explains why the ignorant decision makers don't get how hard it is for people to live on the average wage (as in the majority of people are earning) which is more like $12 an hour! How can we expect them to relate to it when people in Parliament who couldn't get a decent job outside Parliament are being paid in excess of $100,000. How about Clint Rickards pay for the past year or so while not working!

They live in their ivory tower, bank a fat wage/salary and don't get the price of a chicken in minute terms - but you are right. Sad huh.

Are you sure they weren't talking median wage (which is different to average wage)?

'In June 2006, half of all people employed in wage and salary jobs earned more than $17.00 an hour. The median hourly wage for male employees was $18.13, while for female employees it was $15.88.'

For comparison's sake, for a male adult to night pack supermarket shelves at Coles (Aussie supermarket in nearby location to me) he gets $A23.00 per hour plus the 9% employer superannuation.

(I don't think there is any diffference between pay rates for males/females, its just the person I knew of was male and was employed as such).

swaggie, no people at a super market here would ever get 23 dollars, unless you are the boss!
I know of check out girls in town that get no more than minimum even though they are 40 years old.

Didi, this is why I think that when they talk about salary on tv, bus drivers in strike and so on they should talk about how much they do earn, so the politicians get to know.

my buy power here is totally rock bottom.

Both our kids (in their 30's) get paid more than their father who has trade papers in engineering. Difference being, we are here in the country and they are in Auckland and Melbourne....

When I arrived back in NZ 17 years ago I was paid $10 an hour. The job I do now (I hasten to add I love) about a year ago I was on $10 per hour (obviously gone up to min wage). So therefore I am not earning more, but grocery bill has doubled in that time.

[8][8]

Using averages for wages is totally misleading IMHO. Median is more 'accurate' when trying to look at where the levels are. I wish they would stop using 'average' altogether for things like this.

If Bill Gates suddenly came to live in NZ our 'average' wage would increase quite dramatically but noone living here would be any better off in real terms!

And you also can't take the average wage and divide it into a 40 hour working week because a fair chunk of the population works substantially more per week than 40 hours.

Swaggie, do you still have penal rates over there for outside normal working hours? I am thinking of the night store person's rates you were mentioning. Ah, I remember penal rates...the things that compensated you for working when other people weren't, at unsociable hours, or when you'd already done your 40 hour week...I have to explain the concept of Labour Day and what it means (the struggle for 40 hour working week) to younger people and they just look at me as if I am telling them fairytales [V]

Am reading an interesting book about the British low paid workers at the mo which points out that in comparative terms, low paid workers there now earn less than they did in the 1970s, despite the economy being somewhat better according to official figures...

As for Aussie, I get a bit sick of hearing how much better it is salary wise, my stock answer has now become 'but at least we have water here' [}]. As Grant says, money is probably not the main reason most of us live here/stay...[]

Tigger we have too much water here at the mo, I wish it would stop so Hubby could go to work!

There have been a number of changes re penalty rates and employment agreements in Australia recently, but it also depends on whether you came under a state or federal award, or even if you were not covered by one. I certainly haven't for many years, including when I was a shift worker scheduler.

In our company, we used to come under the state award for NSW Building and Construction Industry Award. That has built in allowances for travel, tools, o/t conditions etc.

However it meant that we could not employ anyone under permanent casual employment longer than 6 weeks, then they would have been deemed permanent full time and have to have set hours etc.

Because we are Pty Ltd, and employ ourselves and someone else on a casual conditions, ie when it rains, because the company cannot earn money, we don't get paid and the "business" doesn't have cash flow to pay for someone to sit on their bum not working.

So its impossible to us to employ someone on full time wages. Same for when we have a break away, our employee doesn't have the "ability" to keep the company income ticking over.

So we had to enter into a workplace agreement, which he and his Father were happy with because invariably he gets $A6.00 per hour over the award rate to compensate him for off times.

Part of the agreement system is that the conditions and pay offered must be better than that offered under the former award he would have been eligible to be employed under.

We haven't had ours processed yet, and I am not sure what happens now that our Federal Govt has changed. There has been a lot of media hype re workplace agreements and it was an election issue.

But there were certainly safeguards in place to ensure for the agreement to be accepted we had to pay in excess of the existing awards. So no one under an accepted AWA was going to miss out....

However there have been some high profile companies such as Spotlight who have failed the test.
I don't know the ins and outs, but from my experience with the preparation of the AWA, they must have breached an award condition in the first instance.... to have their agreement fail.

I know there are employees here within the catering industry who are not being paid correctly or at the proper rate. I must say I was shocked to hear that Coles are paying $A23 per hour, because even as an Employer, I do not earn that either.... but maybe that is what they have to pay to get people to work overnight, it seems difficult for people to want to do that at all.