Minimum $15 an hour 'too simplistic' – business leader
Parliament is set tonight to debate a lift in the minimum wage next year to $15, but businesses are unconvinced.
Lively debate is expected in parliament tonight as politicians argue over a $15 minimum hourly wage rate.
Labour MP Dr David Clark’s bill to raise the minimum rate to $15 "on and after April 1, 2013," was pulled from the ballot about a month ago.
It is a bill which has fiercely divided opinion among politicians and the business community.
Employers and Manufacturers Association employment services manager David Lowe thinks the bill is too simplistic.
He says it is a nice idea, but simply putting up wages means the business needs to find the money from somewhere else – either by cost cutting or increasing prices.
“The department of labour indicated at the last minimum wage review, from $13 an hour to $13.50, that any increase could amount to as many as 6000 jobs being cut. The money’s got to come from somewhere… ”
Mr Lowe says people might say it is only an extra $1.50 an hour but that amounts to an extra $3000 a year and if an employer has 1000 workers it is an extra $3 million.
Service and food workers’ union national secretary John Ryall is still not happy with the proposed rise and says $15 an hour is not necessarily a living wage but it is something of a "much more useful minimum".
Dr Clark says the increase from the current $13.50 an hour would give a worker an extra $60 a week, which might mean more bread, milk and cereal for some struggling families.
“The prime minister has admitted he couldn’t live on the minimum wage. Why does he think anyone else can?”
Blair Cunningham
Tue, 28 Aug 2012
Tue, 28 Aug 2012
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Minimum $15 an hour 'too simplistic' – business leader
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