The Department of Labour has recently released its latest wage growth data, which shows that wages and salaries in the Finance and Insurance sector grew by 0.8% for the last quarter and 4.1% for the last year. By comparison wages for all workers grew slightly faster for the last quarter (1%) but only grew 3.2% for the year.
Finance and Insurance is one of the few areas in the private sector that is keeping pace with public sector wage and salary increases. Public sector wage and salaries increase 3.9% last year compared with 3.0% in the private sector. One of the big differences between the two sectors appears to be union membership. 69% of public sector employees bargain collectively through their union. Only 9% of private sector employees bargain their employment agreements collectively. Finance and insurance workers are lucky to have a stronger union presence in their sector than most of the private sector, due to the work of Finsec members.
Council of Trade Unions President, Ross Wilson, says “Workers who get organised in unions and bargain collectively are seeing the benefits. The CTU is calling on all New Zealand workers to get involved in union collective bargaining and get the fair wage increases they are entitled to.”
“If we are to address New Zealand’s low wages problem we need wages to rise on a regular basis and at a decent level, and the best way for workers to achieve that is through joining a union,” Ross Wilson said.
(Thnaks to sirwiseowl for the photo)
...the gossip 
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