How much are older New Zealanders being paid?

1 October 2007

In June 2006 the average hourly wage for older employees aged 65 years and over was $20.05 an hour compared with the average hourly rate for all employees (aged 15 years and over) of $20.04. The first Positive Ageing Indicators 2007 report states a total of 12.2 percent of the older population (58,600) people were employed for one or more hours per week and older men were more likely to be employed than men but the rate for women is increasing faster than that for men.

Older Maori had the highest employment rates with 19.4% employed for one hour or more a week, and older people with a higher level of education were more likely to be employed.

In 2004 the New Zealand employment rate of 11.1 percent for older people was slightly above the OECD average of 10.8 percent. New Zealand was 9th out of the 29 OECD countries.