Coronavirus: Wage subsidy list reveals the scale of economic devastation
Tuesday, 7 April 2020
A Christchurch retailer securing more than $3 million for its 456 workers down to mere thousands for small neighbourhood businesses has highlighted the scale of need for the Government's wage rescue package.
The database of Work and Income subsidies, which is being updated as applications are approved, went live on Monday. It allows employees to check if employers have claimed on their behalf.
The subsidy allows businesses to claim a lump sum of $7029 per full-time worker and $4200 for each part-time worker, if they can show or expect a 30 per cent drop in business between January and June as a result of the pandemic.
Big retail employers swallow up some bulk dollars under the scheme. Smiths City Southern netted $3,123,439 for its 456 employees and the first five Mitre 10 hardware stores on the list received more than $1m.
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Hospitality, travel and tourism businesses have been worst affected by the pandemic and they figure large in the list.
Tourist towns like Wanaka and Tekapo have a raft of different businesses, from service stations to accommodation providers, getting the subsidy. The Dark Sky attraction in Tekapo received a $447,000 lump sum and Wanaka's Edgewater Resort got $484,945.
Many of the South Island's favourite restaurants have put their hands up for help. Pegasus Bay Winery in North Canterbury received $434,000 for its 64 employees, River Kitchen near Oamaru qualified for $127,814 and Black Estate in Waipara got $150,000.
Christchurch restaurants receiving help included, Chillingworth Rd, $140,414, Curator's House, $92,755, Francesca's Italian Kitchen, $116,673 and Joyful Restaurant, $143,000 .
Christchurch cultural institutions have also received cash injections with the Christchurch Symphony getting $159,000 and the Court Theatre $271,236.
The plight of small suburban businesses is graphically brought home by the wage subsidy figures. Putting just Cashmere, a Christchurch suburb, in the search bar immediately brings up five businesses. The five are: the Cashmere Club, $151,732, the Cashmere Fish Supply, $26,659, the Bakehouse Cashmere, $56,148, Fitness Cashmere, $29,488 and Burger Wisconsin Cashmere, $39,259.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the Government had paid out $6.6 billion under the scheme so far, but he expected the cost to increase to between $9b and $10b as more large employers put in claims.
Work and Income's group manager for employment Jayne Russell said the wage subsidy employer search was in such demand on Monday it crashed the system.
'We have increased capacity on the site to enable more people to use the search engine in the future.'
The current list wasn't the complete list of employers, she said.
'As a first stage we have published employers with more than five employees and a trading name. We have a team of people working to update the list continuously to include other businesses.'
Asked to provide regional and industry breakdowns, she said Work and Income would not be releasing the underlying data for the lists at this stage.
'We have been working closely with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to ensure that the form in which data is released takes care with people's personal information.'