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Carolyn Young: Retail NZ CEO on wages rising one percent amid economic downturn · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talks at be
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  Speaker 2: What's some good news. The average wage in retail has
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  Speaker 2: gone up. It's risen to thirty dollars ninety four an hour.
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  Speaker 2: It's up one percent on last year, and it comes
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  Speaker 2: as the sector faces shrinking margins and falling sales. So
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  Speaker 2: I'm joined now by Retail New Zealand chief executive Carolyn Young. Hello,
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  Speaker 2: Carolyn Andrew, how are you this afternoon? I'm very good
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  Speaker 2: and I'm not at all cold because I'm actually inside,
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  Speaker 2: but I will be cold soon. Now. Look, this rises
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  Speaker 2: much lower than inflation, but it's still a rise. Is
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  Speaker 2: this a bonus or is this something they had to
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  Speaker 2: do to keep the stuff?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think it's a bit of both. Right, we
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  Speaker 3: know that it's worth inflation, and we know with every
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  Speaker 3: year there's expectations that salaries go up. But it is
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  Speaker 3: that squeeze that we're seeing in margins. It's the impact
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  Speaker 3: of the wider economy and how everyday keywis are feeling
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  Speaker 3: around what they are receiving in their wages and can
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  Speaker 3: they spend it in a retail store and so that
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  Speaker 3: that's where the pinch point comes. But I think the
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  Speaker 3: other thing that we sort of focus on as well
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  Speaker 3: is the fact that, yes, there's a small rise in
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  Speaker 3: salaries is shear, but a lot of the roles do
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  Speaker 3: get you commissioned. So if you're in a sales bas role,
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  Speaker 3: forty three percent of these roles offer commission or incentive payments,
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  Speaker 3: so that's on top of your salary. And you know
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  Speaker 3: the one thing that we were surprised about is that
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  Speaker 3: twenty percent of business retail businesses offer keep you say,
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  Speaker 3: with contributions above their minimum, So that's contributing to their
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  Speaker 3: staff's future and making sure that you know, setting themselves up.
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  Speaker 3: We know a lot of young people will use their
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  Speaker 3: key saver as a deposit for their first time, so
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  Speaker 3: you know, it sort of goes full circle and comes
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  Speaker 3: back around.
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  Speaker 2: So you wrote the report, and in fact, in the
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  Speaker 2: report you actually say, because of some of these bonuses,
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  Speaker 2: some of these incentive incentives that people have creatively come
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  Speaker 2: up with, some staff are doing really well in retail
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  Speaker 2: and that's good for retention.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I think when you look at it, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I have to admit there wasn't me that wrote my
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  Speaker 3: report that our research guy Ben Mutton Phillips, he wrote
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  Speaker 3: the report and did a great job, and you know
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  Speaker 3: there'd be some surprising things in there for your listeners.
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  Speaker 3: You know, people often think of working in a retailers
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  Speaker 3: just on the shop floor. But you know, if you're
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  Speaker 3: a store manager in a big store like a supermarket
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  Speaker 3: or a hardware store, you might earn seventy hundred, one
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  Speaker 3: hundred and three hundred and twenty dollars an hour. They're
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  Speaker 3: pretty good rates, and there's pretty lots of opportunities for
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  Speaker 3: people who continue to grow and develop. So there's lots
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  Speaker 3: of variety, and here are lots of different types of
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  Speaker 3: roles that people have got. We know that retail is
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  Speaker 3: often that entry point for people's very first job.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, now, well here's the thing. Here's the perception about retail.
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  Speaker 2: When we start saying retail, people start thinking about your
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  Speaker 2: local closed store, you know, but there's a very wide sector.
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  Speaker 2: And you're right about the supermarke because I had mates
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  Speaker 2: who went into the supermarket and grocery business back in
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  Speaker 2: the day, you know, who are now on the rich
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  Speaker 2: list because it offers such an offers such a career
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  Speaker 2: career path so we really need to set up when
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  Speaker 2: we talk about retail, we need to think about it
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  Speaker 2: in the much broader range rather than just a shoe
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  Speaker 2: stop at a clothes shop.
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  Speaker 3: That's right if you think about you know, one of
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  Speaker 3: the parts of the sector that's doing really well continues
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  Speaker 3: to be that technology sector. And we know there's lots
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  Speaker 3: you know, whether that's at somewhere like Spark or somewhere
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  Speaker 3: like JB Hi Fi, you know nol Leaming's those sort
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  Speaker 3: of technology influence stores. You've got lots of young, smart
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  Speaker 3: people doing really amazing things. They've got great incentives that
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  Speaker 3: you know, they're the ones that we rely on right
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  Speaker 3: when we go and we don't necessarily know what we need,
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  Speaker 3: but they are the ones that give us the advice
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  Speaker 3: and the ways in which to do so, you know,
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  Speaker 3: you've got things like that. Then you've got we all
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  Speaker 3: go down to our hard restore at different times, and
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  Speaker 3: I know, if I head down to Bunnings or n
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  Speaker 3: to ten, I've normally got some questions that I need
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  Speaker 3: to ask first before I can buy something, and they'll
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  Speaker 3: tell you. And that's why you go to the store
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  Speaker 3: to get that knowledge and experience. And those people have
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  Speaker 3: got expert advice and they get paid accordingly. And for
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  Speaker 3: some people, you know, that's working in those areas the
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  Speaker 3: things that they love, just as you love working in
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  Speaker 3: journalism and the radio. So I think it's about, you know,
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  Speaker 3: thinking about retail in a whole different way and then
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  Speaker 3: thinking about the jobs that sit in behind there. You know,
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  Speaker 3: those big businesses, they've got lawyers, accountants, they've got payroll people,
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  Speaker 3: it people, you know, every sort of job you've got
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  Speaker 3: to run a business, they work in retail too.
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  Speaker 2: All right, let's look forward. You know, if you're still
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  Speaker 2: in the game at this moment, have you survived the
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  Speaker 2: worst and therefore you are the great survivor? And can
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  Speaker 2: you look forward to better times and retails soon?
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  Speaker 3: Amazing question, Andrew, and I wish I had that forecast
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  Speaker 3: that could say absolutely. But what we do know about
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  Speaker 3: the economy is it's usually cyclical that you know, good
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  Speaker 3: times follow bad and we would expect the market to
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  Speaker 3: turn at some point. The question is, you know, when
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  Speaker 3: is that point? And I'm not quite sure that we're
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  Speaker 3: at the point in the economy where we could say,
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  Speaker 3: if you've survived until today, you will now be okay.
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  Speaker 3: There is more chance that if you've got here and
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  Speaker 3: you've still got some money in the bank, that you
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  Speaker 3: could probably get through this next bad patch. It could
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  Speaker 3: be another six months, it could be another nine months
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  Speaker 3: before we get through this. And it feels like we've
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  Speaker 3: been saying this for a couple of years because every
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  Speaker 3: time we kind of get to that point, there's another
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  Speaker 3: thing that comes in smaxus in the face. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: the Middle East crisis has certainly really put the kish
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  Speaker 3: on on this year's economy, and with rising inflation and
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  Speaker 3: unemployment figures where they are at, it's it's just a
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  Speaker 3: difficult time for every New Zealander.
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  Speaker 2: Really, we all get it. We're all feeling it, but
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  Speaker 2: we're also trying. But hope is eternal, and hope is everything.
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  Speaker 2: And if we and we have to hope that it
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  Speaker 2: will get better and will get better. But it's just
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  Speaker 2: the timing of it. And I'm wondering what to say
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  Speaker 2: these days. Remember when we said survive till twenty five, Well,
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  Speaker 2: I don't so I was singing the other day, drive
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  Speaker 2: in twenty six, I know, thrive in twenty six, and
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  Speaker 2: I started thinking it's heaven and twenty seven.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, that's a great one. Yeah, Well, you know, I
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  Speaker 3: think your retailers are optimistic. You know, we do a
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  Speaker 3: quarterly survey every every quarter, and you know, we ask
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  Speaker 3: about the optimism and retailers continually think that they'll be
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  Speaker 3: fine in the future that we've you know, the data
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  Speaker 3: right now is not great, but we're going to be
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  Speaker 3: really good going forward. You know, regularly mid sixties to
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  Speaker 3: early seventies in terms of where they're thinking their optimism
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  Speaker 3: is at. And if you're a business owner in New Zealand,
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  Speaker 3: you have to be optimistic even when times are super difficult.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, there's twenty nine, five hundred and five
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  Speaker 3: retailers in New Zealand and a lot of them are
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  Speaker 3: sneeze and it's pretty tough out.
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  Speaker 2: There, gotcha. Now, can't I can't cope with any more optimism.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm going to say good night to you, Stay warmed.
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  Speaker 2: Good evening, Yeah, angry evening, and all the very very best.
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  Speaker 2: It's Carolyn Young from Retail New Zealand. She's the chief executive.
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