Minimum wage

The Government, with its announcement the minimum wage will increase by 25c an hour to $13.75, continues to steer a difficult path as debate about the minimum wage compared with a ''living wage'' continues.

The Dunedin City Council is being asked to support the Kiwi Living Wage campaign, despite a warning any pay rise for council staff could backfire for the city's most impoverished ratepayers.

Dunedin North MP David Clark and employer representatives are at odds over the costs and benefits of raising the minimum wage to $15, a possibility after Dr Clark's private member's Bill was drawn from the ballot last week.

Low-wage workers are getting a pay top-up of 50 cents an hour, but unions and opposition parties say the increase falls well short of what's needed by those struggling to get by.

Green Party business policies received close attention yesterday in the first of the Otago Chamber of Commerce's political leader series.

The minimum wage is going up by 25 cents.

While millions of dollars of claims relating to sleepover pay have yet to be determined, the Government has listed the issue as an unquantified risk in this year's Budget.

The minimum wage will tomorrow increase by 25c to $12.75p an hour and low-paid workers plan to mark the occasion with an "April 1 Fool's Day" protest.

Lifting the minimum wage is a defining issue for the Maori Party in government, and yesterday's 25 cents and hour increase falls way short of what the party would be comfortable with, says co-leader Pita Sharples.