51 per cent of workers miss pay rise

More than half of employers in a survey did not give any wage rises in the past year.

The Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) end-of-year, employment round-up survey, carried out last month with responses from 759 businesses, found 51 per cent of respondents did not give a wage rise during the past 12 months.

Of those employers who did pay more, the average rise was 3.3 per cent.

The survey also found 53 per cent of respondents made workers redundant to reduce costs, while 55 per cent used attrition, 30 per cent cut working hours and 9 per cent reduced pay rates.

A possible indicator of some hope for job seekers is that 32 per cent of employers think they will increase permanent employee numbers in the first half of 2010, with 40 per cent expecting to in the second half of the year.

EMA employment services manager David Lowe said employers' top priorities for law changes were the Holidays Act and personal grievance laws.

"The Government has announced reviews on both and has certainly got it right."

Sixty per cent of businesses covered - large and small - reported they were doing very well or doing all right, while 23 per cent said they were coming right, 16 per cent were concerned and 2 per cent thought they might not survive.

- NZPA