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: 28 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18398. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]12.DARIEN FENTON (Labour) to theMinister of Labour: What specific initiatives if any can he point to in Vote Labour in Budget 2014 that will help raise the wages of low income and insecure New Zealand workers?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development) on behalf of theMinister of Labour: In Budget 2014 the focus was on the considered and positive changes to paid parental leave which not only extend the paid leave period by 4 weeks by April 2016 but ensure that more parents will be eligible. This will include precisely those workers who miss out because they—if they are in the casual workforce for example—will have more than one employer. There are also planned increases in the length and amount of the parental tax credit for those who do not qualify currently for paid parental leave. More generally in Budget 2014 the best way to raise the wages of low-income workers is to grow the economy and add jobs. We have added 84000 jobs in the last year and I would point to the positive Budget 2014 forecasts of average wage growth of $7600 by 2018 and around 170000 new jobs in the next 4 years.Darien Fenton: Why has he implemented miserly increases to the minimum wage each year that barely cover inflation when New Zealand faces a significant income disparity between rich and poor?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: As I have said in response to the previous question the increase in the minimum wage this year to $14.25 was actually ahead of the cost of living and actually most workers are receiving wage increases and increases in earnings each year at the moment that are higher than cost of living increases which is exactly the reverse situation from prior to 2008 when cost of living increases were rampant and people’s real wages were going down because their nominal wages were going up slower than inflation.Darien Fenton: How does he intend to tackle the fact that the top 10 percent in New Zealand are earning eight times more than the bottom 10 percent when he refuses to address wages at the bottom end through bringing in a significant minimum wage increase or a living wage?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: We do increase and have been increasing the minimum wage at a rate faster than that of inflation but you do have to be careful because of the risk to job growth. For example if you immediately raise the minimum wage to $15 which I understand is some people’s policy then there would be at least 5000 jobs gone overnight.Grant Robertson: Rubbish! Absolute nonsense.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: This is according to independent analysis by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and if you actually supported the Living Wage campaign then you would place around 26000 jobs at risk. I know that the member thinks you can just arbitrarily increase everybody’s wages and nothing else happens but that is the sort of attitude that led to the economy falling off a cliff in 2008 before the global financial crisis.Darien Fenton: Which of his Government’s policies does he think contributed the most to the increase in the average chief executive officer’s pay compared with the average worker from 22.5 times in 2011 to 26.4 times in the most recent survey?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Actually chief executive officer wages have been significantly higher than the average wages for as long as I can remember and also for as long as the previous Government was in office. Actually what you do have to focus on is lifting job opportunities for Kiwis so that it increases competition for their labour and that is what is happening. We have seen the biggest job growth in the last decade—in the last 12 months 84000 more people are employed and average weekly wages are going up by 3.2 percent which is significantly faster than inflation of 1.5 percent. If we continue on the steady economic growth path that this Government has us on then you will continue to see further improvements in the years ahead.