“What are we giving up?” – cost of living pushing working people out of an ordinary life – NZCTU

Working New Zealanders across every income bracket are skipping meals, putting off the dentist and draining their savings just to get by a new report from the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi shows.

The Cost of Living: What are we giving up? draws on anonymous responses to an NZCTU survey carried out in August.

• Sixty-four percent of respondents were buying cheaper food and a quarter had skipped meals.
• More than half (56 percent) had delayed dental treatment and 45 percent had delayed seeing a doctor.
• Half had cut back on heating.
• Forty-two percent were using savings just to get by.

“People are working, budgeting and cutting back, and their incomes still don’t stretch far enough,” says Sandra Grey, President of NZCTU.

“We asked people what they were missing out on and cutting back on. They told us: meals, heating, the dentist, their savings, kids’ sports, and time with their whānau. They’re giving up the ordinary things that make life worth living.”

One woman aged 55–64 told the survey she often goes without food so her seriously ill husband can eat. A retired man in the Manawatū said he and his wife “seem to live about two major appliances or a big car repair away from collapse.”

“Christopher Luxon said he was laser-focused on the squeezed middle. Instead, we’re hearing from a woman working 50 hours a week who cancelled her life insurance to afford food,” says Grey.

The minimum wage rose 2 percent to $23.95 an hour on 1 April 2026. Annual inflation reached 4.1 percent in June, and electricity prices rose 12 percent.

“The inflation shock was global, but how much households are left to carry is a political choice. Luxon’s Government has put the burden on individuals: work more, spend less, sort it out yourself. Hundreds of people are telling us they’re doing exactly that, and it still isn’t enough.”

The report was launched yesterday at the Unite Union conference. Many Unite members earn well below the median wage of $63,000, and low-wage workers are bearing the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis.

“Our members are telling us they’re feeling financial pressure more than ever before, and that the cost of living is their key priority this election,” says Shanna Olsen-Reeder, National Secretary of Unite Union.

“Like most of us, they work incredibly hard. They deserve to be able to afford basic household needs, but that just isn’t the case anymore.”

“Honestly, I feel like we’re just getting screwed over,” says Unite delegate Saksham Saha. “Our employer doesn’t want to increase our wages in this crisis, and the Luxon Government doesn’t want

to make sure the minimum wage goes up to cover the rising cost of living. But the price of everything around us keeps increasing.”

“I was watching interviews with Christopher Luxon a few days ago, and he’s talking about all the things they’re going to do to help New Zealanders. I’ve seen literally nothing from his government. It feels like false promises just to get into power, and we were taken advantage of.”

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” says Grey. “Wages that keep pace with living costs, affordable healthcare, housing and energy, and a tax system where those with the most pay their fair share would give working people the security they deserve. On 7 November, working people have the chance to choose a government that will deliver it.”

The report points to NZCTU’s Reimagining Aotearoa Together and Briefing to the Incoming Government as the starting point for that change.

The self-select survey responses capture the lived experience of workers in Aotearoa and were set in the context of domestic and international surveys on the cost of living.

The full report is available on the NZCTU website.