Lyndy McIntyre, author of Power to Win. Photo / Mark Coote
Lyndy McIntyre, author of Power to Win. Photo / Mark Coote
The author a book documenting the rise of the living wage in New Zealand said she is proud to tell a story that is important “now, more than ever”.
Power to Win documents the history of the living wage movement in New Zealand, with author Lyndy McIntyre able to tell the story from a front-row seat.
While the book is finished, with a launch planned in Palmerston North this weekend, its topic remains fluid as the cost of living continues to rise in New Zealand.
“These are tough times. It’s tough for families and businesses, those who are working for the lowest wage. A living wage is needed now more than ever,” she said.
“It is really a story about a successful social movement and what it took to bring it together. My motivation is that it’s a story that needs to be told. It’s something I’ve been working on for four years.”
The living wage was a social movement formed in 2011 to address “in-work poverty. People trying to get by on very low wages,” said McIntyre.
She said the living wage aimed to calculate an income level necessary to provide workers and their families with the basic necessities of life, enough to live with dignity and participate as active citizens in society.
“The living wage movement is grounded in the fundamental belief that all New Zealanders should be paid enough to meet their needs, enjoy their lives and participate in society,” she said.
The current living wage in New Zealand is calculated at $27.80 an hour. The initial living wage set in 2012 was $18.40 an hour. Updated annually, it was $18.80 in 2014, $19.25 in 2015, $20.20 in 2017, $20.55 in 2018, $21.15 in 2019 ... increasing each year to its current rate.
The Government increased the legal minimum wage by 45 cents on April 1 to $23.15 an hour. Paying an employee less than the minimum wage is illegal.
The living wage was calculated by the Family Centre Social Policy Research Unit, an independent collaboration of faith groups, community organisations and unions.
Businesses and organisations could sign up to be living wage-accredited. McIntyre said being accredited meant every worker in that business would be paid the living wage or higher, from the CEO to the cleaner and the gardener, with “no worker left behind”.
More than 400 businesses employing more than 60,000 were living wage-accredited. Wellington City Council signed up in 2017.
McIntyre said companies often found that lifting pay rates to meet the living wage increased productivity and boosted morale, leading to less absenteeism.
“There are costs, but there are benefits,” she said.
“It’s not about hounding businesses, it’s about ensuring they step up where they can.”
McIntyre grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, a time of relative prosperity in New Zealand. In the 1970s she became increasingly socially aware, and was a union delegate in the printing industry through the 1980s.
By the 1990s she was working for unions, where she met a lot of low-paid workers, ranging from cleaners to security guards, caregivers and more.
“After the Employment Contracts Act, in 1991, when wages started to spiral down, workers were increasingly saying they couldn’t live on the minimum wage,” she said.
And so began a long career as a unionist. In 2015, McIntyre became one of two paid community organisers in Living Wage Movement Aotearoa New Zealand, retiring in 2020 to write the book.
Lyndy McIntyre with a copy of her book about the living wage movement. Photo / David Haxton
McIntyre, who lives in Paekākāriki, said she was proud of the book, although “part of me would like to sit down and write it again. I think any author would say that. But I’ve been happy with the response,” she said.
Ultimately it was a message of hope, showing how “people power” can bring about change, she said.
Co-convenor of Unions Manawatū Dion Martin said the release of Power To Win was timely.
“It’s a topical read, now more so than ever,” he said.
