Fenton Darien: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Fenton Darien: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 27 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8245. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
9. 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he stand by his statement that the living wage is “simplistic”? 
Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Labour) 
 on behalf of the Prime Minister: Yes and for two reasons. The first is that the Family Centre’s living wage of $18.40 an hour is calculated on the basis of a two-adult two-child family whereas a lot of low-income earners are in different circumstances—for example students working part-time. The second reason is that it assumes that paying much higher wages is costless when it is not—it costs jobs. If all employers in the country paid a minimum wage of $18.40 it would cost an estimated 26000 jobs. 
Darien Fenton 
: When he said that providing New Zealanders with a living wage is not high on his Government’s agenda was he saying that Kiwi workers should not expect to make a living from their work while he is Prime Minister? 
Hon SIMON BRIDGES 
: No. Ultimately above the minimum wage what is paid is up for employers and their employees to negotiate. 
Darien Fenton 
: Does he believe that the minimum wage of $13.75 an hour is enough for families to live on; if so why do two out of the five children in poverty come from families in work? 
Hon SIMON BRIDGES 
: What is very clear is that actually there is a range of circumstances. For people on the minimum wage with children for example there are a range of packages available to them from the Government. The truth of the matter is that actually our minimum wage as a proportion of the average wage is the highest in the developed world. 
Darien Fenton 
: How is it fair that his Government is giving minimum wage workers a measly 25c pay rise while at the same time it is splashing out on $23 million worth of bonuses for Solid Energy’s management? 
Hon SIMON BRIDGES 
: What is very clear is that having a job is much better than not having one and we are very conscious unlike the other party which does not seem to understand economic fundamentals that the higher we raise the minimum wage the more people are put out of jobs—7000 under your policy. 
Darien Fenton 
: Why is the Prime Minister still insisting that a $15-an-hour minimum wage will cost thousands of jobs when Treasury and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment both say there is little evidence to support this and his own Minister of Labour said this morning that there is no science behind that argument? 
Hon SIMON BRIDGES 
: It is uncontroversial amongst good economists that the higher the minimum wage goes the more jobs people do not get. At $15 an hour it is about 7000—a town. 
Te Ururoa Flavell 
: Tena koe Mr Speaker. Kia ora tatou. Does the Prime Minister agree that income inequality has increased in the last 30 years and that increasing the minimum wage to $16 an hour would be a significant step in reversing that trend and achieving what the Living Wage campaign also seeks—that is the income necessary to provide workers and their families with the basic necessities of life to enable workers to live with dignity and to participate as active citizens in society? 
Hon SIMON BRIDGES 
: No because with respect to the member I think what is distinctly arguable is that at $16 an hour for the minimum wage we would end up putting a lot of people out of jobs. That would increase inequality not the other way.