Airborne minimum wage

Air New Zealand staff working mainly trans-Tasman routes have said they plan to strike for 4 days from April 8th, into the front end of the usually very busy Easter weekend. The strike will finish on the Saturday night.

"The crew are employed by an airline subsidiary, Zeal 320, and are paid at different rates to Air NZ domestic and long-haul cabin crew."

"The union said Zeal 320 staff were being paid "poverty wages" and those working directly for the parent company received thousands of dollars more."

So what are Zeal 320 staff being paid? Not much. (pdf). The starting wage is NZ$25,625 (US$14,606 today at NZ$1 = US$0.57). There is no overtime and virtually no allowances. That's barely more than the minimum wage now if we assume a 40 hour week and less than the $26,000 / annum a worker on the new $12.50 / hour rate would earn from April 1st, 2009.

The EPMU's claim these are "povery wages" would appear to be true considering virtually all these staff will live in Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch. To put hat into perspective, buying an average house ($332,000 as of this week nationally - more in the big cities) on those wages would take 14 years at NO interest and not a single penny spent on anything else. In reality, it would be completely impossible. More and more people are earning this kind of money.

As the government is the owner of Air New Zealand, this moves the present government's promises to raise Kiwi wages well into the laughable zone. Almost every policy they have brought in or plan to bring in makes it easier for employers to pay people less.

If we want evidence of deflationary pressures, Zeal 320 is a perfect example. There will be no economic "recovery" if this is the trend workers face in New Zealand and there is precious little to suggest this isn't the case.

If things pick up overseas, Kiwis - especially the young - will be off in a heartbeat....and who could blame them? Their own government certainly isn't interested in keeping them here.