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Salaries up - but so are hours

THE average New Zealander makes $586 a week, up almost 6 per cent on a year ago, but they are working longer hours to get it; and some of tile extra cash is from investments.

Latest Statistics New Zealand figures show the average weekly gross income was $586 in the June 2005 quarter, 5.8 per cent higher than the same time last year.

Unionists say wages are finally rising after a long wait, while business leaders say New Zealand is getting into a "wage price spiral", and further rises will be resisted.

The rise in incomes was in line with increases in retail spending in the past year, and economists said income figures suggested shops were set for a reasonable Christmas.

The official figures only include a couple of months of the impact of the union movement's campaign for 5 per cent wage rises, which started earlier in the year.

Some of the wage claims had been successful, reflecting low unemployment and the difficulty in getting staff. However, excluding money from investments, average weekly incomes were only up 4.2 per cent for the year, only slightly better than the average in the pre-vious six years.

Council of Trade Unions economist Peter Conway said there were slightly higher wage settlements recently.

"There has been a boost to some wages because of labour market shortages since March," he said, but there was a component of people working more overtime.

He said business profits rose 44 per cent over the last four years while wages rose only 11 per cent. "That does seem really out of kilter to us."

The impact of the 5 per cent wage claim campaign was likely to show through more next year. "But 5 per cent doesn't look that much with forecasts of 4 per cent inflation next year, but that's bet-ter than 3 per cent."

But business groups say companies will resist further wage rises of the scale of 5 per cent.