Guess what the minimum wage is going up fifty cents! Our Prime Minister John Key has had a pay increase in the meantime to over the annual income for many welfare beneficiaries income for a whole year. Time for a living wage instead of $15.25 to over $18 per hour. That would create unemployment I can hear neo-liberal ideologs say. Not so; in my opinion it would grow the economy because poor people would spend it all on survival and motivate employers to be more efficient and automate. Automation spurs growth by providing more high tech business opportunities and in a small country like NZ we need technological advancement to drive a growing economy less reliant on low skilled labour doing unpopular and unhealthy menial work.
