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Prue Hyman
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

'Improving the Minimum Code and Other Strategies for Adequate Wages and Working Conditions in New Zealand'

This paper discusses the historical background to the fights for adequate living standards for lower waged workers in New Zealand, covering the concepts as used here of the living wage, fair wage, family wage, minimum wage, and social wage, as well as tax paid allowances to supplement wages. It will then outline the minimum code as it is today and discuss further the lack of concentration on the living wage as a concept or slogan, although not of course as a real site for struggle. Finally, it will consider current problems, especially widening inequalities combined with low real wage growth, and discuss some of the associated gender and ethnic issues.

With respect to the position of women in the labour market, the high levels of unionisation and predominance of centralised bargaining systems prior to the 1990s were important factors in low wage differentials not only generally, but also between women and men. High female unionisation and centralised bargaining are strongly associated in cross country comparisons with a lower gender pay gap. The reversal of these institutional frameworks in the 1990s was thus a major cause of concern although, so far, it appears that the negative impacts on the gender earnings gap are largely balanced out by the reduction in vertical segregation, with more women moving into higher level positions. However, differentials among women are increasing, with women particularly needing the protection of an effective minimum wage due to their over-representation in low paid work. The paper therefore also discusses the application of the Ministry of Women's Affairs gender analysis framework to minimum wage reviews and their rearguard fight against other Government Departments to secure reasonable increases in the minimum wage and fight for the position of low paid women in the labour market.

Bio: Prue Hyman is a feminist economist and Research Associate in Women's Studies at Victoria University of Welllington, New Zealand. Formerly Associate Professor of Economics and Women's Studies at VUW, her 1994 book Women and Economics: A New Zealand Feminist Perspective covers a range of theoretical and applied areas. She spent two years in government on secondment at the NZ Ministry of Women's Affairs and is heavily involved with gender analysis and policy issues. Active in the International Association for Feminist Economics and the NZ Women's Studies Association, she spent 6 years on its Board of the first and is helping organise the November 2003 Conference of the WSA.


<prue.hyman@vuw.ac.nz>