CTU MEDIA RELEASE
06 November 2006

Rising Wages A Good News Story

"The announcement today that wages rose on average by 5.5% in the last year for the 57% of the workforce that got an increase is a good news story for workers and their unions," CTU president Ross Wilson said today.

"Workers who get organised in unions and bargain collectively are seeing the benefits. The CTU is calling on all New Zealand workers to get involved in union collective bargaining and get the fair wage increases they are entitled to."

"Because not everyone got an increase, the overall wage and salary increase for the 12 month period was 3.2% which is less than the rate of inflation."

"The CTU wants to see real wages increase every year so we can make a start on reducing the 30% gap between wages here compared with Australia. Recently the minimum wage in Australia increased to the equivalent of $14.86 which is 45% higher than the NZ minimum wage of $10.25."

"If we are to address New Zealand's low wages problem we need wages to rise on a regular basis and at a decent level, and the best way for workers to achieve that is through joining a union," Ross Wilson said.

ENDS

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