The Maori Party is at odds with the Government over the increase in the minimum wage to $13.75, calling it pitiful.

Labour Minister Simon Bridges has announced the minimum wage is to rise by 25 cents to $13.75 from April 1.

A Parliamentary committee has recommended a starting wage for youth be passed into law.

The mortgage belt and taxpayers have been the main winners in a $5.7 billion rise in households' collective income.

Everyone agrees we're a low-wage economy but the impact of that on families has been lost behind a haze of judgment and indifference, writes Tapu Misa.

Service and Food Workers Union lead organiser Len Richards told a conference launching the living wage at AUT University yesterday that Aucklanders needed $24 an hour to pay higher rents and other costs.

Auckland and Wellington councils have agreed to look into adopting the "living wage" of $18.40 an hour proposed by a coalition of union and community groups.

Parents of students attending Auckland's Diocesan School for Girls pay roughly one and a half times as much in fees as Ana Malolo takes home for cleaning the school.

The Government is not buying into the idea of a "living wage" but the new Minister of Labour says the minimum wage will continue to increase.

Mareta Sinoti cleans the offices of politicians from midnight on week nights, is employed to work only 30 hours a week and earns $13.85 an hour.

Quan, a 20-year-old student visa holder from Vietnam, works up to 50 hours a week in a retail shop and gets paid $7 an hour.

Exploited migrant workers are being paid $2 an hour to work in small businesses such as ethnic restaurants.

It would do no harm - and possibly a great deal of good - for New Zealand to know the minimum a person needs to be paid in this country to have a "living wage".

Actor Grae Burton was the classic "Kiwi bloke" in Tui beer commercials last year. His work only just earned him what unions consider a "living wage".

About 40 truck drivers serving Pak'nSave and New World supermarkets will lose their jobs this year when they are replaced by owner-drivers.

Salaries in high-demand industries are expected to rise by as much as $20,000 a year as New Zealand's talent pool dries up.

MPs will receive a 1.9 per cent pay increase, the Remuneration Authority confirmed this afternoon.

Real wages for many New Zealanders are falling, writes Peter Lyons. "It is becoming very hard to make ends meet for those at the bottom of the ladder who operate in the most competitive labour markets."

Low-wage workers look likely to get a small pay rise of under 3 per cent next April after the Government removed social factors from the criteria for setting the minimum wage.

Foreign Affairs chief executive John Allen has defended taking a $40,000 pay rise at a time of job cuts at his ministry, saying he did not believe it was a bad look.