[Tia Maria]

I wonder what will become of this?

www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10493689

Hundreds of Bunnings Warehouse employees around the country will stop work for two hours today over a $6 an hour pay gap with their Australian counterparts.

Workers from several of the Auckland hardware stores will hold a rally at the company's Mt Wellington head office while Wellington workers will meet Green MP Sue Bradford at Parliament and deliver a message to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd via the Australian Embassy.

Stopwork meetings are also being held in Whangarei, Whangamata, Hamilton, Whakatane, Gisbourne, Rotorua and Christchurch.

National Distribution Union national secretary Laila Harre said Kiwi workers at Bunnings, which is owned by Australia's richest company, Wesfarmers, started on $12.00 an hour while their co-workers across the ditch started on a union rate of $18.44 an hour which would increase to $19 an hour in July.

"It's not as if Bunnings charge customers less here and their employees have a similar cost of living in both countries," she said.

Cheers

Tia

[Lupin]

Disgraceful- good luck to them.

[LesleyS]

While I agree 100% that it is disgraceful, it doesn't just happen in a situation like 'Bunnings'.

My OH also works for an Australian company which pays their Oz counteparts a considerable amount more per hour for doing the same identical job as he does here in NZ.

[pieeater]

This situation is common among Australian companies in N.Z. And they wonder why people hop the ditch.

[Tia Maria]

I knew wages were worse over here but 50% difference still shocked me. I haven't worked out how much extra that is a month but who wouldn't be happy with earning 50% more?!

I haven't really heard of many strikes since we've been in NZ, if they do manage to get more money just imagine how many other workers could try for the same!

But then Nzers have put up with this for a long time already - so maybe they'll put up with it for a lot longer? :(

Cheers

Tia

[Lupin]

Yep, my husband is a nurse- we looked up what his salary would be at the level he is at in Oz :exit

[StevieD]

But what is the cost of living like in OZ compared to NZ? That has to be a factor surely???

[JandM]

That article quoted says it's the same. Is that true? - I don't know.

And then, are both sets of wages quoted in one OR the other kind of dollar?

[Tia Maria]

That article quoted says it's the same. Is that true? - I don't know.

And then, are both sets of wages quoted in one OR the other kind of dollar?

Most people I've spoken to seems to think the cost of living is similar, but with more choice in OZ, although you must get regional variations. And they also charge the customers the same, which is interesting.

Either way, there is no way NZ is 50% cheaper than OZ, its the size of the difference that shocked me more than there actually being one.

I understand there are reasons why NZ can't pay as much as Europe/USA etc, but its only a few hours from OZ so I find this difference harder to comprehend. Maybe its a population thing?

Cheers

Tia

[stu70]

Unless NZ tries to reinvent itself as a knowledge economy and tries to minimize its dependence on the industries that are labour intesive for employment, it is going to be really hard for the nation to keep pace with Australia. NZ just doesn't have the critical mass it needs to offer OZ wages or shopping choices. It is best to accentuate the positives by creating a strong R&D base, keeping taxes low, investing in education, thus turning the nation into a leadership position when it comes to areas like agri-food business, IT, renewable energy, etc. This is probably one of ways they can keep some of the high paying jobs at home.

[incredible hulse]

But what is the cost of living like in OZ compared to NZ? That has to be a factor surely???
Yep; must say I thought Oz was a cheaper place to live than NZ though when we lived there. House prices are more though in Sydney (and possibly Perth)

[Gemini]

I do think the cost of living is cheaper in Oz, no doubt helped by the population. I know the same kind of issue has arisen in Aussie companies taking over nursing homes in NZ and paying workers lower wages, while paying more in Oz

[akp713]

I would worry about the company passing on the cost of a pay raise to the consumers. Since NZ doesn't have the same level of demand for goods their operating cost must be higher and thus the wages lower. At Home Depot in the US pay starts at $9/hour at the highest and they have some of the highest wages in US retail. Higher wages are usually a good thing but not if they price the company out of the market and result in lost jobs.

[MaxG]

As a point of comparison the Oz minimum wage is about 15.75NZD, NZ minimum wage is 11.25NZD.

ISTR reading somewhere that a large fraction of the Kiwis going to Oz were unskilled, with higher wages being the main driver.

[Tia Maria]

I would worry about the company passing on the cost of a pay raise to the consumers. Since NZ doesn't have the same level of demand for goods their operating cost must be higher and thus the wages lower. At Home Depot in the US pay starts at $9/hour at the highest and they have some of the highest wages in US retail. Higher wages are usually a good thing but not if they price the company out of the market and result in lost jobs.

I guess the only way to know for sure as to whether a company would need to increase prices to allow for a wage increase would be to look at their profits.

It comes down to whether you believe Bunnings is paying less as it needs to due to higher operating costs or whether its doing it to make more profits. You would have thought this would have been easy to establish.

What I've always found a bit suspicious about NZ wages is the amount of people who have told their employer they are going to leave, as the wages are not high enough, and the employer has immediately come back with a much higher offer in order to keep them. I think there have been a few migrants on this forum who have experienced this, or know of someone who has. This gives the impression that many NZ employers will pay less simply because they can get away with it.

Cheers

Tia

[akp713]

Yes I believe you're quite right about the profits v. costs equation. It is the most important factor, that is whether they can afford to pay their workers more.

Also the fact that the Aussie minimum wage is higher says it all. The US minimum wage is still US$5.15/hour, less the NZ$7.00 so the pay for wage jobs n much of the US is much lower because companies can get away with it. If NZ workers want to hope to be paid more their best bet would probabl be a raised minimum wage.

[dilanium]

I know a lot of states have higher minimum wages than the federal minimum wage. Last year Ohio raised it's minimum wage from like $4.50 to $6.85 (not that anyone was allowed to get paid $4.50 because of the federal minimum wage).

I wonder how many still use the actual federal minimum wage, because I know I couldn't survive on that.

[akp713]

Virginia, where I lived, still pegged the state wage to the federal minimum of $5.15, so did DC and Maryland, though both of them finally raised theirs in the last year or two. Virginia remains pegged to the federal. But in my home state of Massachusetts the minimum wage was recently raised to $7.25 and is set to go to $8.25 next year.

Both Clinton and Obama have said they want to increase the federal minimum to $9.50.