Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, government ministers and public service chief executives will take a 20 percent pay cut for the next six months. [Source: RNZ]
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, government ministers and public service chief executives will take a 20 percent pay cut for the next six months.
Ardern announced the cut at the COVID-19 government briefing this afternoon.
She said it acknowledged New Zealanders who were on wage subsidies, taking pay cuts, or losing their jobs due to the COVID-19 coronavirus.
“We feel acutely the struggle that many New Zealanders are facing and so too do the people that I work with on a daily basis.
“This was always just going to be an acknowledgement of the hit that … many New Zealanders are taking right now.”
She said she knew the decision to take a paycut would not affect the government books, but leadership had to come from the top.
