PSA media release 20 December 1999

Minimum wage rise brings overdue relief for workers

The increase in the minimum wage will bring some relief for those New Zealanders who work ‘very hard for what remains a very basic income’, the PSA said today.

‘The PSA supports the move and the thinking and sense of social justice behind it. It is long overdue and it is to the credit of the new Labour-led Government they have moved so decisively and so efficiently,’ PSA national secretary Lynn Middleton said.

‘National’s legacy remains in many areas of New Zealand society. Their brutal and unfair approach to the lower-paid will be seen as one of their more mean and discriminatory policies.

‘No doubt the employers’ groups will have their well-oiled public relations teams working hard on “spinning” this and seeking to portray it every which way but fair.

‘Well, the PSA sees it as one thing only - some restoration of wage equity and important, progressive action from a new Government delivering on exactly on what it promised,’ she said.

For more comment please call the PSA national secretary, Lynn Middleton on,
on 025 306016 or the PSA media officer, Colin Williams on 025 575839

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