Bradford Sue: Minimum Wage Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Bradford Sue: Minimum Wage Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
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SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 It has been a somewhat protracted period since the Minimum Wage Amendment Bill first saw the light of day in June 2001 and the Green Party will certainly be giving our support to this bill at the end of the final stage of this third reading debate. It is a pity that the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee dealing with the bill could not find any agreement on whether it should be passed given that all this bill does is apply a minimum wage for a category of trainees who up until now have been exempted from even the low level of security provided by the Minimum Wage Act. The Green Party believes that it is only fair that people who are undertaking at least 60 credits of training a year under the national qualifications framework should have the dignity of being paid at a rate at least equivalent to the youth minimum wage. At $6.80 an hour it is hardly a fortune given the cost of food work clothes transport and accommodation these days. 
We also think it is sensible that the bill allows for the criteria for application of the training wage and the rate itself to be set by regulation so that these can be adjusted by the Government on a regular basis rather than having to go through the whole lengthy and difficult business of amending the Act each time. Flexibility alongside principles of equity are going to be critical factors in making this bill work. Historically trainees in areas like hairdressing panel beating and parts of horticulture have been the most hard done by often paid at shockingly low rates and it is high time apprentices in these industries were brought into the 21st century. Contrary to what some business representatives and some Opposition MPs say I do not believe that raising rates to the princely sum of $6.80 an hour is actually going to break the banks of employers most of whom are in fact quite conscious of the tremendous value that apprentices offer in all sorts of ways in the workplace otherwise they would not take them on in the first place. 
The Green Party commends this bill as part of an overall labour strategy of moving towards higher minimum standards for all workers. However we do wish the Government could move a little faster on other minimum-wage issues. The current adult minimum wage of $8.50 an hour brings in only $340 a week gross. With average household spending standing at present at around $758 a week or more this means that the minimum after-tax take-home pay is well under 50 percent of what is needed to sustain life for the average family. 
We totally support the Council of Trade Unions and others who are calling on the Government to raise the minimum wage immediately to $10 an hour. Even at this rate the gross wage for 40 hours’ work is $400 a week which is equivalent to 52.5 percent of the 2002 average hourly rate. At a time when we live in a contradictory situation whereby we still have mass unemployment at the same time as workforce shortages in some areas we believe that workers employers and labour productivity as a whole will all benefit if there is a rise in the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour. 
Higher wages mean more spending on goods and services which in turn mean greater income for employers; increasing their capacity to cope with the wage rise itself and also raising their potential to take on more staff in the long run. 
We believe that the Government should also be moving as quickly as possible towards phasing out the discriminatory youth rates that still exist for 16 and 17-year-olds. We cannot see any ethical or practical reason that a fit young 16-year-old pumping gas at the local service station for 20 hours a week should earn less per hour than a fit young 18-year-old or than an even less fit 50-year-old. 
For those who continue to scoff both at the prospect of rises in youth wages or at proposals to lift the minimum wage overall by $1.50 an hour I remind them that New Zealand wages are still something like 26 percent behind those of Australians. The Green Party will always and consistently back any moves to raise minimum wages and conditions for New Zealand workers and we commend this bill as being of particular significance in terms of improving conditions for some of the most exploited and underpaid young workers in New Zealand.