Living Wage Week has started with a new milestone for the Movement.

The first ever corporate business has become an accredited Living Wage Employer. New Zealand's largest distributor of electricity and gas across the Auckland region, Vector Limited, joins nearly 90 other accredited businesses committed to paying no less than $20.20 to all workers, including contracted cleaners.  

The announcement was made at Auckland’s Kai Pasifika restaurant, another Living Wage Employer (Vector CEO Simon McKenzie is pictured below speaking at the launch). This is huge for the Movement and for all New Zealand workers because for years small and medium sized businesses in the private sector have come on board but the billion-dollar corporates have remained silent.

It takes courage to step outside the box and just as TONZU did for small manufacturers in 2014, and Tuaropaki Trust did for the rural community in 2015, now Vector has sent a powerful message to the corporate sector that the light is shining on those who can most easily pay all workers earn enough to live a decent life in NZ.