{"id":179168,"date":"2025-12-11T23:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/179168\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T23:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:22:10","slug":"minimum-wage-to-increase-from-april-next-year-govt-commits-to-bigger-rise-than-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/179168\/","title":{"rendered":"Minimum wage to increase from April next year, Govt commits to bigger rise than last year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The minimum wage was last increased on April 1 this year<\/a>. That 1.5% rise to $23.50, affecting between 80,000 and 145,000 workers, was not at the time in line with inflation, which sat around 2.5% in March. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know those pressures have made it a tough time to do business, which is why we have taken this balanced approach. With responsible economic management, recovery and relief is coming,\u201d van Velden said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am pleased to deliver this moderate increase to the minimum wage that reflects this Government\u2019s commitment to growing the economy, boosting incomes and supporting Kiwis in jobs throughout New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Official documents show MBIE provided the minister with seven options for the minimum wage, ranging from maintaining the current rate to increasing it by 3% to $24.20 per hour.<\/p>\n

A 2% increase was recommended, the ministry said, as this was \u201cconsidered to best balance the two limbs of the objective – protecting the real income of low-paid workers and minimising job losses\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCPI inflation forecasts suggest annual inflation will ease to be within the 2\u20132.5% range in the first half of 2026 and remain relatively stable at around 2% from June 2026 through to 2028. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese forecasts indicate that a 2% increase would largely maintain the real income of minimum wage workers relative to the level of the minimum wage when it last increased on 1 April 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials said a 2% increase would not have significant employment restraint effects. <\/p>\n

But given recent economic data, including a gross domestic product (GDP) contraction and elevated unemployment, MBIE said it favoured a \u201ccautious approach\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 2% increase to the adult minimum wage is expected to affect approximately 122,500 workers, including those currently earning at or below the minimum wage, or between the current rate and $23.95.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key groups that would be affected include youth, part-time, female and M\u0101ori workers, as well as those in sectors such as tourism, horticulture, agriculture, cleaning, hospitality and retail.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile these workers would benefit from a wage increase, they may also be more exposed to employer responses to increased labour costs, such as reduced hours or adjustments to non-wage benefits,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe estimated fiscal cost to Government from this increase is relatively modest, at $17.5 million annually, consistent with the small cost estimates across all rate options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The minimum wage was last increased on April 1 this year. That 1.5% rise to $23.50, affecting between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54170,41216,52044,71,266,24912,5345,685,29484,111,43,139,1536,69,1436,131,61,60700,1533,379],"class_list":["post-179168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-april","tag-bigger","tag-commits","tag-from","tag-government","tag-govt","tag-increase","tag-last","tag-minimum","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-rise","tag-than","tag-to","tag-wage","tag-will","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}