Last Tuesday the CTU launched a report by economist Dr Ganesh Nana on the evidence as to the impacts of industry (or sector) collective bargaining. We commissioned the study to promote Fair Pay Agreements which the Government is currently considering. Fair Pay Agreements aim to form a floor of wages and conditions for an industry,… Read more »
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Was the “Wellbeing Budget” much different from any other Budget? Was it better? It is of course the first one, so we need to allow the Government some room to develop its ideas and processes. Quick answer: Yes it was a Wellbeing Budget in that it was built around the idea of focusing on many… Read more »
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The Prime Minister has announced that the Government will not tax the income from capital gains while she is Prime Minister. It has therefore lost a future source of revenue at a time when needs are becoming ever more apparent, and just before its first ‘Wellbeing Budget’. Both supporters and opponents of taxing capital gains… Read more »
Read more... This commentary is an edited version of a recent speech, “Transforming New Zealand’s low wage economy”. Whether we look at international comparisons, or look at whether employees are getting a fair share of the income that their work generates, New Zealand is a low wage economy. New Zealand wages adjusted for the cost of living… Read more »
Read more... The Tax Working Group (TWG) has reported back. The reactions to the proposal for taxing the income from capital gains have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous and from “it doesn’t go nearly far enough” to “this is the end of the kiwi way of life”. They have exposed a class society where one… Read more »
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This commentary looks at the year ahead. The Prime Minister has described this as the year of ‘delivery’ for the Government and she aint wrong. In addition we need to keep an eye on what’s happening in New Zealand’s economy and society, and how international events could affect us. Numerous Government working parties will report… Read more »
Read more... Newly released statistics allow us to update the share of New Zealand’s income that goes to wages and salaries – the labour share – for the year to March 2018 for the whole economy and to 2017 for individual industries. The labour share of income of income fell from 61.2 percent of Net Domestic Income… Read more »
Read more... In August, the Centre for Labour, Employment and Work (CLEW) at Victoria University released their annual analysis of collective employment agreements (CEAs). It shows again that people who are part of a collective get better pay rises: the union pay premium. For the year to June 2018 CLEW finds that on average wages in CEAs… Read more »
Read more... How well does New Zealand’s tax system perform in reducing inequality? What would be the effect of some likely changes to it discussed in the interim report of the Tax Working Group, released last week? New Zealand’s personal income tax system is very weak in reducing inequality compared to other OECD countries. So is our… Read more »
Read more... It is often said that New Zealand has a low-wage economy in comparison to other high-income countries such as those in their club, the OECD. Business NZ recently disputed that. But there is strong evidence that New Zealand does have low wages. First, a comparison of the purchasing power of annual average wages for full-time… Read more »
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