Minimum Logic to Minimum Wage Change
With the stroke of a pen, the Government has locked thousands of young New Zealanders out of employment by denying them
choice and freedom of contract, ACT New Zealand Commerce Spokesman Deborah Coddington said today.
“Raising the minimum wage for 18 and 16-year-olds will guarantee only one thing – more youth will be barred from
entering the work force.
“It is no surprise the CTU welcomes this move, because they don’t care about the unemployed. They only care about
featherbedding their own interests.
“When my daughter sweeps the floor of a hairdressing salon after school and on Saturdays, why shouldn’t she be able to
negotiate her own rate of pay?
“If she can’t negotiate a satisfactory rate, there are plenty of other salons, dairies, supermarkets - all sorts of
businesses – eager to employ energetic, money-hungry teenagers.
“But this neo-socialist Government thinks it knows better. These neo-socialists in power – who no longer have to own the
means of production, distribution and exchange because they regulate to control it anyway – believe individuals are
incapable of making decisions for themselves.
“ACT New Zealand has enormous trust in the power of individuals – from the age of 16 to 116 – to determine what is best
for themselves and their own futures. The state should be there to protect their interests when their rights are
breached. But the state has no business interfering in what is voluntarily agreed between consenting adults,” Miss
Coddington said.