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Phil Goff - Source: Q+A -
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While trade unions are backing Labour's promise to increase the minimum wage the proposal is being condemned by the business community.
Phil Goff said bumping the minimum wage from $13 to $15 per hour is not only affordable but necessary.
"Right now we have got a situation where people don't have enough money to live on," he said.
The lift would mean an $80 pay raise for employees who work a 40 hour week on the minimum wage.
"Business can afford that and it's important that people have a living wage, and when you give a living wage to these people they go out and buy goods and services that creates work," said Goff.
However, both employers and officials have concerns.
The Department of Labour warns that lifting the minimum wage could also lift unemployment.
They say the change would cost about $500m in extra wages throughout the country, and could mean 6000 fewer jobs in the economy.
"If we could just legislate to make wages higher with no implications on the economy, in other words people not losing their jobs or others buying goods and services, why don't we legislate for the minimum wage to be twenty dollars an hour," Prime Minister John Key said.
Both Labour and National say it is a balance between what's fair and what's affordable and both claim to have that balance right.
