Employers did not give out many pay rises over the last year, but where they did they tended to give them to highly unionised workers with collective agreements, like teaching professionals.

For the second quarter in a row, the Quarterly Employment Survey reported that average hourly earnings had fallen. The March quarter’s Labour Cost Index showed a greater deterioration in wage growth than the Quarterly Employment Survey, with ordinary time wage rates increasing 1.5 percent for the year and 0.3 percent for the quarter.

Statistics NZ say this is the lowest growth since September 2000. For the March 2010 year, 1 percent of the working population saw their wages decrease, 56 percent experienced no change, and 43 percent saw an increase in wages. This is the lowest proportion since 1999.

However, the data also reveals some interesting trends for teaching professionals, with that group experiencing the highest percentage increase (3.7 percent) in salaries and ordinary time wages of any of the surveyed occupation groups for the year March 2009 to March 2010. This could be due to the high rate of unionisation among teaching professionals.

The Labour Cost Index statistics also show that the most important reason employers gave for giving a pay increase, and especially a pay increase of more than 3 percent, was because of the existence of a collective employment agreement.  Employers were more likely to explain the pay increase they awarded because of this, rather than saying it was due to cost of living increases or the need to attract or retain staff.

Thanks to kiwi shooter at Flickr for the photo