ACT wants to freeze minimum wage and reduce youth training rate
New Zealand's ACT Party has proposed freezing the adult minimum wage for three years and reducing the training wage for workers under 20. The party argues these measures are necessary to support small business growth and reduce regulatory burdens.
Why it matters
The proposal highlights a significant ideological divide regarding labor market regulation and economic growth strategies in New Zealand.
The ACT Party would freeze the adult minimum wage for three years and reduce the training minimum wage for workers under 20 years old to 60 percent, if re-elected.
Those are part of ACT's wider small business policy package, which includes allowing "protected" employment exit negotiations and shortening the time limit for personal grievances to be taken to the Employment Relations Authority and making unions collect their own membership fees.
Currently, the adult minimum wage is $23.95 while the training and starting out minimum wage are $19.16 - set at 80 percent of the adult wage.
Sixty percent of the minimum wage equals out to $14.37.
The training wage would replace the starting out wage and existing employment protections would still apply.
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