{"id":358499,"date":"2026-04-01T11:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T11:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/358499\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T11:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T11:35:12","slug":"needed-more-than-ever-living-wage-rises-to-29-90-per-hour-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/358499\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Needed more than ever\u2019: Living wage rises to $29.90 per hour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cLow-paid workers are struggling to keep their heads above water and to cover the absolute basics like rent, power and kai.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Muriel Tunoho. Photo \/ RNZ\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Muriel Tunoho. Photo \/ RNZ<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">More than 340 employers are accredited Living Wage Employers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">There is no legal requirement for employers to pay more than minimum wage, which is $6 below the living wage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">The living wage increase is double that of minimum wage, which also rises to $23.95 on Wednesday \u2013 an increase which did not keep up with inflation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">Living Wage lead organiser Finn Cordwell said the living wage would help struggling families live a life of dignity which was not possible currently on the minimum wage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe would like the Government to reflect on how out of step the minimum wage has become for low-paid workers and whether anyone around that Cabinet table could actually live on $23.95 an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">Living wage employers have until September 1 to implement the new rate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">&#8211; RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cLow-paid workers are struggling to keep their heads above water and to cover the absolute basics like rent,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[189276,6440,42,33262,4188,130,23362,43,42300,10042,131,61,40,38,41,39,60700],"class_list":{"0":"post-358499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-189276","9":"tag-ever","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-hour","12":"tag-living","13":"tag-more","14":"tag-needed","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-per","17":"tag-rises","18":"tag-than","19":"tag-to","20":"tag-top-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topnews","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-wage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358499","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=358499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}