Australia has just handed its lowest-paid workers a 4.75% pay rise, lifting the minimum wage to just over $25-Australian-dollars an hour – which is about $32-New Zealand-dollars.  

That means a full-time worker across the Tasman will now earn nearly $1004-Aussie-dollars, before tax. -- or $1216- Kiwi dollars. 

Here, the minimum wage went up just 2% this year to $23.95 an hour. Even our voluntary Living Wage, at $29.90, falls short of Australia’s legal minimum.  

At a time when rent, groceries, petrol, and power bills keep climbing – the comparison is stark. 

So, what does this say about how New Zealand values its workers? And, why on earth would any young person want to live and build a life here? 

Today on The Front Page, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions president Sandra Grey is with us to talk about the growing wage gap, what it means for workers here, and whether New Zealand is in danger of pricing itself out of its own future.