New instructions re. Wage Subsidy

Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced on Friday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy.

The need for speed seems to have thrown up a few contradictions as government departments learn to work together, but better communication may be  one of the good things to come out of the current crisis.

Hospitality NZ has commented:

'A lot of members have been asking:  

I have an employee who usually only works (say) 10 hours a week, and gets paid (say) $200 a week.  Do I now pay him /her the full amount of the subsidy for a part-time employee ($350 per week), or do I cap it at what he or she would usually be paid?

Today, Government issued the opposite instruction, via a press release from the Minister of Finance. Grant Robertson said:

“We still want employers to use their best endeavours to pay employees 80% of their normal salaries.  Where this is not possible, we want the value of the subsidy to be passed on. …. But to be absolutely clear if a person’s income is normally less than the subsidy they can be paid their normal salary.”

In other words, Government has now accepted the common sense approach advocated by Hospitality NZ, to cap the amount of subsidy funds passed on to part-time employees at what they would usually earn. "

This new instruction from the Minister of Finance can be found here.