More than 40,000 New Zealanders got a pay rise on Friday, but with the 25-cent increase to the hourly minimum wage working out to just $10 a week, before tax, it will barely cover the cost of a celebratory drink come next payday. So could the minimum wage have been raised by more without lengthening the dole queue? Ideas talks to former minimum wage worker Miriama Francis; the owner of Auckland's Cherry Cleaning Company, Sid Day; US economist William Lester; Auckland University professor Tim Hazledine; and AUT senior lecturer in economics Gail Pacheco.
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