Magical thinking

Obviously, the horticulture industry, like dairying, is hard-hit by labour shortages, so if Chapman believed a higher minimum wage would help address the shortage he’d be in favour.

However, Chapman says the Government line that lifting the base wage is going to create a high wage economy is faulty thinking. 

“It’s pure economic fallacy that driving up wages will magically transform NZ; that it will get rid of low paid and what they see as ‘unskilled jobs’, so creating a highly paid work force that does not have to do what [the Government] considers to be unskilled work”.

The theory goes that higher wages leads to increased labour productivity therefore the employer recoups the higher wage cost.