Pitiful minimum wage increase adds insult to injury for workers robbed of pay equity

The Government's 45 cent minimum wage increase is an insult to thousands of workers already struggling to make ends meet, many of them women in care and support roles, who have already lost out from the axing of pay equity.

"This is just further proof of a government intent on making the life of working people even harder. It's offensive and shows how out of touch this government is," said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

"For care and support workers who this Government betrayed by stripping them of their pay equity rights, this is salt in their wounds. These predominantly female workers were already underpaid - now they're going further backwards with an increase that barely keeps pace with inflation.

"It's cruel, it's calculated, and it exposes exactly where this Government's priorities lie - and it's not with the workers who care for our elderly, support people with disabilities, and keep essential services running.

"In a week where the Government embraced the biggest anti-worker changes in a generation, this is more evidence of a government determined to do the bidding of its business mates.

"These workers deserve better. New Zealanders deserve better."