Weekly wage rates up 1.3 p.c. in year

Press, 27 May 1983, Page 2

Weekly wage rates up 1.3 p.c. in year

PA Wellington Actual weekly wage rates measured by the prevailing weekly wage rates index rose 1.3 per cent in the year ended March, 1983, said the Statistics Department yesterday. The figure could still increase when backdated increases are taken into account. The comparable (final) figure in the previous year was 17.3 per cent. A decrease in the index of 0.1 per cent was recorded between the December, 1982, quarter and the March, 1983, quarter. The March, 1983, quarter is the second to come entirely within the period governed by the Wage Freeze Regulations. The marginal declines in the March quarter index at

the all-groups level and for some industry and occupational series result from the changes which occur each quarter in personnel in the surveyed sample of specified jobs whose descriptions make up the index regimen. Rates within the jurisdiction of the Arbitration Court, which mainly covers the private sector, showed a 1.7 per cent increase in the year ended March, 1983. The increase can be compared with a 0.3 per cent increase in rates prescribed by other industrial tribunals which mainly cover the public sector. Movement in wage rates is related to movement in the consumers’ price index through the effective prevailing weekly wage rates index to the C.P.I. The effective index decreased 10.1 per cent in the year ended March, 1983. The index makes no allowance for the changing impact of income tax on gross wages and salary levels.