![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Read a couple of things in the Herald today which got me twitchy.
~~~
One was a reference to the high dollar 'castrating' the export sector. The sentiment I read a lot is: "we need to get out dollar down so that our exporters can make money again".
Well sorry, as a consumer I'd actually like it to keep moving in the other direction, thank you. Why aren't we saying "This could be great for our export and domestic businesses - an opportunity to take advantage of the rising dollar to import the technology and expertise to be more productive*." Why isn't it an incentive to do things better or get out, like it would be in any other market.
*But wouldn't it be great if the government and other factions would devote the same sort of resource to developing that technology and expertise here as they does to trying to manipulate the dollar and thus maintain low prices overseas for our products. And they say little free-market NZ has little in the way of agricultural protectionism.
And while they're busy keeping prices low for overseas consumers it means we're having to pay more for goods. Is that arse-backwards or what?
~~~
The other was this little gem from Kerre Woodham:
WTF?! $15 a low wage job? Sure it's not high, but it's surely not something anyone I know would dismiss out of hand.
$600pw (40 hours) = $31,200 before tax = not to be sneezed at.
I've gone so far as to check the stats for the June quarter 2009 which puts the median hourly income at $19.47 ($20.53 if you're male, $18.22 if you're female). For 20-24 year olds (which is a lot of the people I associate with) it's $15.34
Bearing in mind the boosts to the minimum wage in recent years (and biased by the youth rate being something like $7.50 when I started my working life) I'd love to know -when- Kerre was earning $15 hour so that I could look up those stats.
So I have to concur that yes, technically $15/hour is a low wage. But practically? I didn't know what to do with my money when I was earning that much, as old LJ entries attest.
~~~
One was a reference to the high dollar 'castrating' the export sector. The sentiment I read a lot is: "we need to get out dollar down so that our exporters can make money again".
Well sorry, as a consumer I'd actually like it to keep moving in the other direction, thank you. Why aren't we saying "This could be great for our export and domestic businesses - an opportunity to take advantage of the rising dollar to import the technology and expertise to be more productive*." Why isn't it an incentive to do things better or get out, like it would be in any other market.
*But wouldn't it be great if the government and other factions would devote the same sort of resource to developing that technology and expertise here as they does to trying to manipulate the dollar and thus maintain low prices overseas for our products. And they say little free-market NZ has little in the way of agricultural protectionism.
And while they're busy keeping prices low for overseas consumers it means we're having to pay more for goods. Is that arse-backwards or what?
~~~
The other was this little gem from Kerre Woodham:
There was a time when I was in a low-wage job and not able to pay all my bills on time. Occasionally that was my fault but, really, when you're on $15 an hour, there's only so far you can make that money stretch.
WTF?! $15 a low wage job? Sure it's not high, but it's surely not something anyone I know would dismiss out of hand.
$600pw (40 hours) = $31,200 before tax = not to be sneezed at.
I've gone so far as to check the stats for the June quarter 2009 which puts the median hourly income at $19.47 ($20.53 if you're male, $18.22 if you're female). For 20-24 year olds (which is a lot of the people I associate with) it's $15.34
Bearing in mind the boosts to the minimum wage in recent years (and biased by the youth rate being something like $7.50 when I started my working life) I'd love to know -when- Kerre was earning $15 hour so that I could look up those stats.
So I have to concur that yes, technically $15/hour is a low wage. But practically? I didn't know what to do with my money when I was earning that much, as old LJ entries attest.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-11-15 04:44 am (UTC)From:Say, you're paying your mortgage, and car payments, and all of a sudden you find yourself jobless. Even if you can earn a full 40 hour work week at min wage, the $600 might not cover all your outgoings.
This says more about committing to debts you can't long-term manage than anything else, particularly during a recession where people are getting pay cuts and job losses all over the place.
From the perspective of someone who spent the last 7 years living on ~10,000 a year, 600 a week is plenty. But that also assumes that you can find a full work week somewhere. If you're working service industry you may well only be able to get 2-3 shifts a week, and if you have ot pick up a second job then the tax rate is the full 33% penalty for not finding a job that pays enough/gives enough hours.