More New Zealand households are under financial pressure than ever.
New Zealand families are under growing financial stress as stagnating wages and salaries prove inadequate to cover spiralling costs – and even top-tier earners are feeling the squeeze.
According to Statistics New Zealand’s Household Income Survey, 29,200 more families now rate themselves as having incomes too low to meet their daily needs than in the same survey four months before John Key’s first term.
In June 2007, the number of households rating themselves income-poor was 254,100. That number has now risen to 283,300.
While some of that is due to natural growth in household numbers, there is also a clear erosion in the belief by many households across the spectrum that their incomes are adequate.
In 2007, the proportion rating their incomes as “not enough” was 16.23%. It’s now 17.57%.
Continue reading Rob Stock’s article “New Zealand families feel the income squeeze”.