Fenton Darien: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFenton Darien: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 13 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15928. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]8.DARIEN FENTON (Labour) to theMinister of Labour: Does he agree with the Prime Minister’s statement on the minimum wage that “I think we’ve been pretty fair in what we’ve done in the past and we probably will be in the future”?Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Labour): As tempting as it is to think there is something a bit tricky in this question from the current member Darien Fenton I wholeheartedly agree with the Prime Minister. The reason for that is that we have raised the minimum wage every single year we have been in office. We have a very high minimum wage compared with other countries. We have the highest ratio in the OECD of minimum wage to the average wage. Only four other countries have higher minimum wages than us in terms of absolute wage levels and only two other countries have a higher annual income for a minimum wage worker than New Zealand. I am confident that we will continue to strike that careful balance between protecting low-paid workers while ensuring that jobs are not lost.Darien Fenton: Is it pretty fair that the minimum wage grew by 36.2 percent in real terms when Labour was in Government but it has actually decreased by 5c an hour in real terms since his party became the Government?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I do not think that last so-called statistic is correct.Darien Fenton: Does he think it is pretty fair that some Government-owned companies’ chief executive officers are paid 53 times the minimum wage and some private sector chief executive officers are paid 146 times the minimum wage or is that just a bit rich?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I appreciate that the party opposite is the party of the politics of envy but this party has raised the minimum wage every single year. We have one of the highest minimum wages in both real terms and relative terms in the world. As I say we have the aim of raising it absolutely where we can without affecting the employment levels of workers.Darien Fenton: Given his Government’s rejection of the labour cost index as a measure of wage growth and its reliance on the quarterly employment survey does this mean he will commit to a minimum wage increase at least as large as the increase in wages in the quarterly employment survey?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Well I do not unwrap my Christmas presents before Christmas. The member will have to wait and see.Darien Fenton: Given both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have said they could not live on the minimum wage how is it fair to maintain the minimum wage at a level that families real families cannot afford to live on?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Of course there is a range of other entitlements including not least of which Working for Families which this Government wraps around families in addition to the minimum wage. As I said I think in answer to the primary question we have raised the minimum wage every year we have been in office. We have one of the highest minimum wages in the world. I think in tough times that is worth remembering.