Data issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday shows the average weekly wage in Australia is A$1131.40 (NZ$1398) which compared with New Zealand’s average weekly wage of just over $886 means there is a 49.7 per cent difference between what workers in Australia and workers in New Zealand are paid. The figures were adjusted for the currency exchange rate and cost of living difference between the two countries.

New Zealand’s minimum wage is $12 an hour, while Australia has a minimum wage of A$13.76, equivalent to NZ$16.80 an hour. The Council of Trade Unions has been calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour for almost a year. CTU economist Peter Conway to the Dominion Post that as well as a minimum wage increase there need to be investment in new technology to increase productivity.
In the year to February nearly 30,000 people emigrated from New Zealand to Australia, that statistic has led people all over the political spectrum to draw different conclusions as to the reasons. It is however highly likely that the massive wage gap plays a large part in peoples reasons for emigration.

In more depressing information released recently the New Zealand Medical Journal stated that social injustice is killing New Zealanders on a grand scale, the warning was based on research published in the journal arguing that higher rates of ill health among poor people are leading to differences in a mortality rates between regions. Among the plausible explanations for this were changes in housing, health and education with the implementation of a “neoliberal economic and social agenda” as well as increased reliance on “market forces” in health care since the 1980s. This is a problem that would also be relieved somewhat -but not completely solved- by wage (and benefit) increases.