Foodstuffs says its supermarkets are still deciding whether to adopt the new youth wage, which came into effect today against the backdrop of union opposition.

Business NZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly has criticised unions for taking industrial action over new youth rates which came into effect today.

Labour Minister Simon Bridges ignored advice from Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to raise the minimum wage to between $13.80 and $13.90 an hour.

The overwhelming majority of Auckland information and communications technology employers are planning to hire new staff this year as new projects are rolled out and customer demand increases, research shows.

Low wages combined with ever increasing demands of the professional era is forcing some players from the sport too early, says NZ netball players' association.

A Henderson tofu maker has become the first Auckland employer to sign up to the living wage campaign, promising to pay its six factory workers at least $18.40 an hour within a year.

Rodney Hide looks at the left's latest cause for businesses to cough up a "living wage".

Forget any notions about rich real estate agents because a survey shows many of them are nearer the breadline than the Bollinger.

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.

Campaigner Deborah Littman says paying a living wage will require a leap in thinking to accompany an increase in the $13.50 minimum wage to $18.40.

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".

Providing New Zealanders with a living wage is not high on the Government's agenda and it is unlikely to support the campaign, Prime Minister John Key said today.

Almost 750,000 Kiwis look set to be classed as the new working poor when the union movement fixes the value of a "living wage" needed to have a decent life here.

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.