Salary and wages up 1.9 pct in year to June

NZPA

Tuesday 2nd August 2011 1 Comment

Salary and wage rates, which include overtime, increased 1.9 percent in the year to the June quarter, Statistics New Zealand says.

That included a rise of 0.4 percent in the June quarter.

The latest annual increase in the labour cost index (LCI) follows a 1.9 percent rise in the year to the March quarter and a 1.7 percent increase in the year to the December quarter.

After the 2008/09 recession, annual wage rate growth reached a low of 1.5 percent in the year to the March 2010 quarter.

Salary and wage rates for the private sector increased 2 percent in the year to the June quarter, following a 2 percent increase in the year to the March quarter.

Public sector rates rose 1.5 percent in the year to the June quarter, following a 1.4 percent rise in the year to the March quarter.

Fifty-eight percent of salary and ordinary time wage rates in the LCI sample rose in the year to the June quarter, up from 56 percent, 53 percent, and 49 percent in the years to March, December, and September quarters, SNZ said.

The quarterly employment survey (QES), also released today, showed that in the June year, the number of full time equivalent employees remained flat, at 1.33 million, while total paid hours increased 1.6 percent.

For the same period, average total hourly earnings increased 3.1 percent, compared with a rise of 2.6 percent in the March year.

The LCI measures changes in pay rates for a fixed quantity and quality of labour, while the QES is designed to measure quarterly estimates of average hourly and weekly pre-tax earnings, average weekly paid hours, and the number of filled jobs.

Comments from our readers

On 3 August 2011 at 7:54 pm ken said:

Tax rate $5,000,000 per annum \52 weeks = $96,153.85 per week Tax rate 38% pre sept 10 2010 rate =$36,538.46 tax per week 33% post sept 10 2010 rate =$31,730.77 per week Making $4870.71 per week X 52 = $250,000.00 per year These are the difference that someone earning $5,000,000 per year Would make due to the tax changes in sept 2010 Like john key This is about what he is declaring he is giving to charity as his PM salary So this does not cost him a cent guess who is paying for this? There is one born every minute , sucker must be printed on our foreheads