Jacinda Ardern will be assured of a rapturous reception when she addresses the Council of Trade Unions biennial conference on Wellington today.
The incoming prime minister yesterday released the coalition deal signed between Labour and New Zealand First which put in writing the minimum wage being progressively increased to $20 an hour by 2020.
The conference theme is Creating our Future, something likely finance minister Grant Robertson took a major interest in over the past two years.
The conference will bring together more than 150 union members and officials from 21 CTU-affiliated unions and representative bodies.
CTU secretary Sam Huggard said the conference would set out the future working people wanted to create with the new Government and the business sector over the next three years and beyond.
CTU president Richard Wagstaff said the commitment to the increased minimum wage was ''just the sort of change working people voted for''.
''It is great to see the Labour-NZ First coalition Government putting people first and it is a really good first step on the path to a fairer Aotearoa.''
Recent research by the CTU showed between 1998 and 2015 hourly wages rose twice as fast for those at the top of the wage range, compared with those below the average.
The big driver of any increases for those on the lowest wages was increases to the minimum wage.
''This will make a huge difference to the dignity of the many, many people who are working hard for low wages in this country - many more than there should be.''
It was also a much-needed tonic for the broken wage-setting process workers had endured, he said.
