Over 40% of workers struggling to meet basic needs, research shows
Wednesday, 20 July 2022
Auckland Transport cleaner Iunisi Faingaanuku says the increasing cost of living is putting the strain of her family’s finances.
The increased price of rent, food and petrol have forced a change in her spending habits.
“Food is so expensive now that when we shop we can only buy the bare essentials. The only meat we buy is chicken, because mutton is too expensive on my wages. There is hardly anything left for saving,” Faingaanuku said.
Faingaanuku said her industry needed Fair Pay Agreements to help wages for lower paid workers keep up with the cost of living.
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Auckland Transport spokesperson Blake Crayton-Brown said cleaners were paid the living wage through its contractor, and would increase on September 1 to $23.65 an hour.
Reseach from payroll software firm Elmo found Faingaanuku was not alone and over 41% of workers struggled to cover basic living costs in the previous quarter.
Hotel chef Thomas Seu worked in the MIQ system during the height of the pandemic. He said the cost of living struggle he faced now was worse than during Covid-19.
In the last five months Seu had seen the price of his family’s food shop more than double, while his wages remained the same.
“This is not just one industry, so many workers are finding it hard to survive,” Seu said.
Seu said the cost of living had far outstripped wages, and workers were paying the price.
“My parents’ generation could work nine-to-five and afford to buy a house. Now my generation work nine-to-five and find it impossible to even put food on the table, let alone live.”
According to Elmo, two out of five employees struggled to cover basic living costs amid soaring inflation.
Over the past three months, petrol, housing costs and groceries had become the hardest things to afford.
Elmo chief executive Danny Lessem said the perceived economic security among workers was at an all-time low, with only one in 10 workers stating they felt financially secure.
Despite the economic uncertainty, 18% workers searched for a new role in the previous last quarter.
Unite union national secretary John Crocker said the tight labour market had taken some heat out of inflation.
Low unemployment meant workers were in a stronger position to negotiate for a pay rise to help keep up with inflation, Crocker said.
But still many workers were in an extremely difficult financial position, he said.
“Workers are dealing with increased rent, food, fuel, generally things are more expensive across the board. No-one is immune, and we need wages to move up,” Crocker said.
First Union assistant general secretary Louisa Jones said the rate at which costs were increasing was “frightening”.
“We are getting to a point where we are seeing more and more people slip into food insecurity. Everyone needs to eat, but not everyone can afford to right now,” Jones said.
Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said people should not expect cost increases to go away any time soon.
While oil and petrol prices had recently gone down, the situation in Ukraine meant that trend was unlikely to continue, he said.
Costs to homeowners would continue to increase over the next 24 months, and food prices may continue to rise as higher energy costs impacted production, he said.
“The issue at the moment is that many businesses feel they can pass on costs to consumers because everything is getting more expensive across the board.
“It will take the Reserve Bank a long time to get expectations back under control,” Kiernan said.