Median Wage Drops While Company Profits Rise

-

JKT links to Statistics New Zealand and reveals the 1.7 drop in the median weekly income (from all sources). The median income is now only $529 per week, $9 a week over the minimum wage (if looking at a 40 hr week). For a year's income it works out at $27,508, so almost half of all New Zealanders live on less than this. No the wonder the demand for food parcels is dramatically increasing and child poverty involves over 20% of our children.

Bill English and the National Government appear to have no intention of addressing the growing inequities and Bill has even stated that low wages will give us a competitive edge. National's enthusiasm for supporting corporates and the already wealthy as a way to stimulate the economy appears to reflect the failed "trickle down" theory of the past. This approach is fully exposed in the latest Time magazine's headlining article "The five Myths about the US economy". Myth number five is "The private sector will make it better" and it is revealed that American firms generated $1.68 trillion in profit over the last quarter of 2010 alone, with none of that profit being translated into jobs or increased wages.

I thought I would do a quick google to check how our New Zealand companies are doing and this is what I found:
Westpac: Profits up 68% ($210 million)
Infratil: up 26% ($120 million)
Air New Zealand; up 33% for half year ($115 million)
ANZ: up 19% for half year ($605 million)
McDonalds: up 5% for half year ($35 million)
Freightways: up 9% for half year ($15.8 million)
F&P: up 20% ($33.5 million)
Delgats: up 9% ($17.1 million)
Fonterra: up 21% ($293 million from a revenue of $9.4 billion)
Fairfax Media: up 15.8% for half year ($172.3 million)
(an average of 22.8% increase in profits across these randomly chosen companies)

These companies represent a good cross-section of our economy; banking, transport, farming, manufacturing, investment and fast food. The increase in profits range from 5 to 68% yet wage increases have been forcibly kept down under 4% and many on the lowest incomes struggle to get more than 1% through their wage negotiations.

I am ready to admit that I am not an economist but it certainly appears that under this government our successful businesses are laughing all the way to their banks and the banks are laughing all the way back to Australia.

Comments

Kerry said…
Excellent analysis, I wdn't stress over version 1 not making it to print!
June 17, 2011 at 8:26 PM
Dave Kennedy said…
Thanks, Kerry, the Time article needs to be passed on to Bill and Co, we have lots of myths in common.
June 17, 2011 at 8:41 PM
Elizabeth said…
Great article - good points to make to voters during the campaign.
June 18, 2011 at 2:42 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The US is actually unique for not valuing life!

-
Image
"...that’s what sets America apart from every other country; we value life. That is what makes us unique.” - Sarah Sanders There is a high level of delusion operating in the White House. The stream of mistruths that come out of President Trump and Sarah Sanders' mouths are clearly blatant lies but millions of US citizens believe them. With daily diets of Fox News and living in a very insular culture , there is little that challenges these false perceptions of US "greatness".  When comparing the United States of America with most other developed nations it becomes clear that it probably places less value on life than most and doesn't compare well with many developing countries too: If the US really valued life then it would abolish the death penalty, it is the only Western Country that executes people under law ( 23 people were executed in 2018 ).  If the US really valued life then it would have an equitable and universal health care system. The cur...
Read more

NZ Olympic Team Exposes Inequality

-
Image
The inequalities within our New Zealand society has been starkly revealed in our Olympic Team according to sports journalist Dylan Cleaver. The team is largely white, with the rugby sevens sneaking in the few brown faces. This is a damning indictment on the lack of inclusiveness in many of our sporting codes and their spending. When one considers how many of our   internationally successful athletes  are Polynesian then it seems shortsighted to make participation in so many sports dependent on family income. By 2038 the Super Diversity Stocktake has determined that 51% of New Zealanders will be Maori, Pasifika or Asian and those of European descent will be in the minority. Despite this reality the majority of the funds coming from High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) goes to sports that require considerable expense to participate in: rowing, cycling, sailing, equestrian, triathlon. Even sports like athletics and swimming, that don't have such a heavy equipment outl...
Read more

The Destruction of New Zealand's Public Education System

-
Image
In 2008 New Zealand was internationally ranked in the top seven for educational achievement, and when you compared us with other countries that were also culturally diverse and experiencing growing inequality, we were extremely successful. At that time our Early Childhood sector had received a much overdue boost in funding from the Labour Government after being underfunded (as a % of GDP) compared to other OECD nations for years. The sector was working towards a target of having 100% qualified teachers in all centres. We were also in the process of implementing a new National Curriculum and a complementary curriculum for Maori ( Te Marautanga o Aotearoa ). Teachers were excited about putting all their energies into the new ideas and approaches that were espoused in these co-constructed documents that had taken around seven years to review and write. Evidence, research and practitioner input had created something that would allow us to prepare New Zealand children to become ...
Read more