Wage increases and fairness come from workers organising for it.
Two out of every three New Zealanders want the minimum wage raised to $15 an hour now, according the polls.
Four parliamentary parties: Labour, Greens, Progressive and Maori have climbed on board to support it.
The crew at the Unite union are stoked. We've been pestering concert-goers and sport spectators for weeks, asking them to sign our petition to increase low-paid workers' pay to $15 an hour.
Almost 100,000 have signed so far.
When we first started we were told it was an unrealistic demand because of the recession. It's clear now that most New Zealanders believe anyone who works for a living deserves a decent wage.
Frankly, no self-respecting employer believes it's fair to ask someone to work for the current $12.50 minimum hourly wage.
The Labour Department, in submissions to the Government, recommended a raise to the minimum hourly wage by 60 cents to $13.10. No Government in recent times has ever turned down advice from these people.
So it was a surprise for the Government to announce the working poor would have to suck on a miserly 25c. That's about 15c in the hand. Just enough for a latte and muffin treat once a week. Oh, the decadence!
I assume Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson thought the Kiwi workers on the breadline were supposed to be grateful. I have to report I didn't come across any this week. The workers I met were either incredulous or outraged. It might have been better if she gave them nothing, because the rose-tinted glasses that some of these workers had about this Government have fallen off.
The CTU president Helen Kelly mused out loud about what cunning part of John Key's plan to close the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia this announcement might come under. After all, inflation is forecast at 2.3 per cent and the average wage moved up 2.8 per cent. This decision actually widens the gap between the working poor and their fellow Kiwi workers, never mind our cousins across the Tasman.
But the Government's insult doesn't just hit the 100,000 minimum wage workers, it also impacts on the nearly half million who aren't even paid more than $15 an hour. The Government spouted the usual nonsense that raising wages would increase unemployment. They don't cite any evidence of this because there isn't any. No study in the world backs this well-worn assertion up. It's one of those lies told so often that we assume it's true.
Evidence tends to support the opposite view. For example, under the last Labour Government the minimum wage almost doubled from $6.12 to $12 an hour. Yet unemployment dropped from 11 per cent to 4 per cent during the same period. In 2003, 16- and 17-year-old kids got a 41 per cent increase in their minimum rate and that age group's employment actually rose 15 per cent.
When I negotiated union employment agreements some years ago with fast food chains, they insisted that if we abolished youth rates and increased their workers' hourly rates by $3 we'd put them out of business. In fact, the opposite happened. Every restaurant chain expanded its number of employees and opened more stores. My experience is that if all employers in an industry paid a higher wage it makes no real difference to any of them.
But we shouldn't be surprised by National. Behind Key's ordinary Kiwi bloke image lurks a party that is fundamentally anti-worker. Did people really expect his Government to help workers if its employer allies said no?
There are more working people in this country than there ever have been. But working-class consciousness has never been so low.
The only time wages will rise is if working people band together and fight for it. Wage increases and fairness doesn't come from a benign Government. It comes from workers organising for it.
