Minimum wage is now $20 per hour from 1 April 2021

Some will love it others will loathe it, but the minimum wage is increasing and is intended to increase even more in the coming years if the Labour government enacts as they say.

In reality this will result in a justified pay rise for everyone as anyone earning above minimum wage now will also want an increase to keep the parity between the current reward that they get compared to minimum wage.  This will then either make businesses less profitable or they will have to put their prices up.  I cant imagine that the boss will be happy to take a pay cut to give an increase to their workers.

So the zillion dollar question is will the increase in wage have greater buying power once these extra costs ripple through to the retailer?

• From 1 April 2019 the minimum wage will be $20.00 or $800 for a 40 hour week.
• The starting-out and training minimum wage rates will be $16.00 per hour, remaining at 80 per cent of the adult minimum wage.

Just remember that there are significant penalties that you can face if you pay less than the minimum wage.