Fenton Darien: Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Fenton Darien: Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:629;Page:1418] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 May I say what an absolutely predictable speech that was from the Opposition side of the House. What is new? I was hoping to hear something different from Mark Blumsky. I am pleased to speak in support of the Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Amendment Bill going to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. The issue of paying a lesser minimum wage for young workers aged 16 and 17 does need to be properly considered and the appropriate place for that to happen is in a select committee. 
The purpose of a minimum wage is to protect vulnerable low-wage workers from exploitation in the employment relationship—to provide a safety net. It is not intended to be a primary wage-fixing instrument. But unfortunately in some New Zealand industries the minimum wage has become the market rate. Often firms like the supermarket to which Mark Blumsky referred which can very easily afford to pay more than the minimum wage pay minimum wages because they can get away with it in our still very deregulated labour market. A couple of days ago I talked with some workers in a well-known national shoe store chain. Throughout its 52 stores in New Zealand workers are paid the minimum wage and the youth minimum wage. The workers do not have the bargaining power to do anything about it so their response is to leave and get another job that pays better. Now that works fine when there is a buoyant labour market—like there is under this Government—but when jobs become tight workers are stuck in low-wage jobs and work for employers who can afford to pay a lot more. 
When Opposition members complain about the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia they should own up as to why it has happened and why this Government’s commitment to increasing the minimum wage has become an essential tool in increasing wages in New Zealand. When the minimum wage was introduced by Labour in 1945 it was set at 83 percent of the average weekly wage and there was no youth minimum wage. Over the years it fluctuated but as large numbers of workers had the protections of industrial and occupational awards the minimum wage did not have the significance it has today. 
When National introduced the Employment Contracts Act in 1991 the minimum wage became the only protection for hundreds of thousands of workers whose award wages disappeared almost overnight. Now what did National do? It introduced the youth minimum wage for the under 20s at 60 percent of the average weekly wage. Despite the minimum wage setting the wages that many workers came to rely on there were many years during the 1990s when the minimum wage did not increase at all or when only minimal adjustments were made. The effect was that the minimum wage slipped from 52.5 percent of the average wage in 1987 to 40 percent at the end of the 1990s. 
Furthermore may I say that National’s enforcement of the minimum wage during those years was pathetic. In 1997 there were just 19 labour inspectors for the whole of the country with the consequence being that many workers who sought help to enforce the minimum wage were told to come back later because no one was available to help them. In the climate of fear that prevailed then and with the great stamina that was required to enforce workers’ rights many of them simply accepted sub-minimum conditions. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Well why didn’t these people join unions? 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Because the National Government made it difficult for them. This Labour-led Government has set out to incrementally address the dreadful consequences of those policies on low-wage workers. It has extended the adult minimum wage to 18 and 19-year-olds and we have done something about 16 and 17-year-olds. [ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: That barraging was really a bit too much. 
Tariana Turia 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I was really standing up to say that there is a bit too much barraging and we cannot even hear down this end of the House. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: The member is absolutely right. Please members it was far too excessive. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: The Labour-led Government has stood up for 16 and 17-year-olds by increasing the application of the adult minimum wage to 18-year-olds and also by increasing the youth minimum wage to 80 percent of the average wage. I will give members a couple of figures. In 1999 the adult minimum wage was $7 an hour. From March this year it will be $10.25 an hour. In 1999 the youth minimum wage was $4.20 an hour. In March it will be $8.25 an hour. So it will almost double. But of course Dr Brash and the National Party want to abandon the minimum wage as well as holiday pay entitlements paid parental leave and moves to close the gender pay gap. 
Since Labour was elected in 1999 successive Labour-led Governments have reviewed and raised the minimum youth wage and the minimum adult wage every year. It is clear that there is a debate to be had on the suitability of paying workers at a different rate for the same job just because of their age. As a member of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee I look forward to considering all the issues and having robust consideration of this important matter.