29 May 2001 Media Statement

No gain without pain

More pay for executives should mean a greater contribution by recipients to improve the services available for working New Zealanders, Alliance leader and deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton said today.

A Cubiks survey shows base salaries for senior executives increased 6 per cent in the year to March.

Jim Anderton says higher incomes are good, but with higher incomes comes a higher responsibility to do more to make all New Zealanders better off.

"Average incomes in New Zealand are too low, and we need to lift incomes across the board.

"New Zealand should aim high, and aim for rising incomes for everyone, not for rising inequality.

"When senior executives achieve pay increases that far outstrip pay increases for ordinary working New Zealanders, then those senior executives have an opportunity to contribute more to New Zealand.

"New Zealand needs to invest far more in health and education. If high income earners were willing to show some leadership and ownership of the shortfall in expenditure needed for the very best health and education services we can provide to all of our citizens, they would enable us to create the kind of New Zealand we can all be proud of," Jim Anderton said.

The Alliance campaigned at the last election for an executive surcharge of four cents in the dollar on incomes over $75,000 and $100,000 to help to pay for more spending on health and education.

ENDS

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