Renewed calls for Whanganui District Council to pay living wage

Marion Sanson was pictured selling white poppies for peace on Anzac Day in 2017. Photo / File

The Living Wage Whanganui group has again asked Whanganui District Council to "step up" and pay all its staff enough to provide themselves with basic necessities.

About a quarter of Whanganui District Council employees are on the minimum wage or slightly above it, convenor Marion Sanson said.

She and a small group of T-shirted supporters made their verbal submission to Whanganui District Council on May 9. It was one of 37 submissions on the council's annual plan, and one of nine where submitters spoke in person.

Sanson cited figures the council supplied earlier this year, when the living wage was $20.55 an hour. At that time 71 people were on the minimum wage instead - $16.50 an hour.

On April 1 New Zealand's minimum wage rose to $17.70 an hour and its living wage - an estimate of how much it costs to provide basic necessities, live with dignity and participate in society - rose to $21.55 an hour.

Bringing all staff up to $20.55 an hour would cost the council an extra $137.437 a year, Sanson said, but it was important.

Councillors have said they want an economy that works for all, Sanson said, and their economic development goal is to add well-paid jobs.

"Inequality gnaws the heart out of a community."

She presented 62 submissions in support of the living wage, gleaned during two mornings at the Whanganui River Markets.

Councillor Charlie Anderson said the cost of living was higher in Auckland, yet the living wage was set for the whole country.

But that meant that Auckland should have a higher rate, not that Whanganui should have a lower one, the group's submission said.

Councillor Rob Vinsen asked whether Whanganui's CEO would have a problem keeping wages relative if the council moved to a living wage, as Wellington City Council has.

Wellington did seem to have a problem with relativity after the change, Sanson said, with pressure to raise the wages of staff who had been slightly above the living wage.

"It's hard to say how much that would cost, but you would expect a little bit of pressure."

Councillors will debate what they have heard on May 22 and 23, and adopt their annual plan on June 27.