Rachel Mackintosh: E tū National Secretary on ACT's plan to freeze minimum wage, lower youth training rate

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Sep 15, 2026 · 2m · transcript

It's being suggested New Zealand is still suffering from a minimum wage freeze 30 years ago, and ACT's pledge would do long term damage.

The party wants to set up a training wage for under-20s in their first year, allowing them only 60% of the minimum wage – that's $14.37 an hour.

ACT also wants to freeze the minimum wage for three years.

E tū National Secretary Rachel Mackintosh told Ryan Bridge the wage is already well below what people need to survive on.

She says the policy sends a message that some New Zealanders aren't worthy of earning enough to live.

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