Minimum wage must rise to combat child poverty

An urgent increase in the minimum wage is needed if New Zealand is seriously going to address issues of poverty within this country, Green Party Social Development Spokesperson Sue Bradford says.

Today is World Poverty Day, and Ms Bradford says that it is unacceptable that while 20 percent of New Zealand children live in poverty, the minimum wage remains far too low for peoples' real needs.

“I am right behind the Council of Trade Union’s campaign announced today to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

“Despite the Government's post-2005 election commitment to NZ First and the Greens to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour by next year - if conditions allow - this is not enough when so many people are dependent on taxpayers’ subsidies simply to survive, and when the cost of basics like food, power and housing just keeps rising.

“The Government must recognise and act on the unacceptable level of poverty experienced by one in five New Zealand children - and by large numbers of adults as well,” Ms Bradford says.

The Green Party also joins the Child Poverty Action Group and the Children’s Commissioner in calling on the Government to end the discrimination built into Working for Families, which sees the children of beneficiaries miss out just because of parental employment status.

The minimum wage in New Zealand is only 70 percent of the Australian minimum wage. An increase to $15 an hour would lift it to two thirds of the average New Zealand wage.

The Green Party has been campaigning for a minimum wage rise of $12 an hour since 2005, and further policy work is already underway to determine how much higher it should go based on the rising costs of basic living requirements.