Wage-increase rate down by half
PA Wellington 'Wage increases for the year ended September, at 10.3 per cent, have slipped to exactly half those of last year, said the Statistics Department yesterday. Inflation for the same period increased 16.6 per cent, according to departmental figures. Although wages and salaries, measured by the weekly wage rates index, increased 10.3 per cent, the department said that this could be revised upwards when any later backdated increases were taken into account. ■ The same index for the year ended September, 1981, recorded- a 20.6 per cent increase. There was evidence to show that public sector wage
rates increased al a slightly lower level than the private sector. The department said that rates within the jurisdiction of the Arbitration Court, which mainly , covered the private sector, showed a 10.6 per cent increase. This was compared with a 9.6 per cent increase in rates prescribed by other industrial tribunals which mainly covered the public sector. The prevailing weekly wage rates index measures the changing level of actual wage and salary rates in the economy, and is akin to a price index. It is constructed so as not to be influenced by changing proportions of employees in various job or age categories. Only changes in wage and salary rates can influence the index, unlike the
Labour Department's average earnings statistics, which can vary as a result of both pay changes and composition of the labour force. Using the-figures to compare the latest recorded annual wage increase against the consumers price index — which is the standard measure of inflation — the department has calculated that the purchasing power of wage ana salary earners has fallen 5.4 per cent. The department said, however, that its wage and salary figures were based on gross pays and therefore did not take account of changes in the tax structure. The Deputy Government Statistician, Mr S. Kuzmicich, said that new comparative figures were now being compiled to take acccount of the tax changes.
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Press, 27 November 1982, Page 2
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329Wage-increase rate down by half Press, 27 November 1982, Page 2
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