Five annoying ideas
Glenn McConnell at Stuff proposes five ideas to make NZ “fairer, better and less annoying”.
Almost without exception they would achieve the opposite. Let’s take just one:
We get today off simply because it is “the day after New Year’s Day”. At least they could make up a name for “the day after Christmas Day”, aka Boxing Day. Don’t stop there. Why not the day before, as well?
Of course, some businesses will complain because money. Cry me a river. Public holidays are universally loved and drive spending in hospitality, tourism and in the regions. More importantly, they’re a day free (or well paid) of work. Only sycophantic corporate slaves would argue against days off.
New Zealand has a measly 11 public holidays a year. If we were to live in Colombia or Iran, we would have 27! Luxembourg has 11, but also paid special leave for anniversaries, weddings or moving house. Another few days won’t sink the banks.
I suspect Glenn has never worked in a small business. He seems to think all businesses are large corporates like his employer.
I did work in a small business. A small advertising and design agency. Like many businesses it owned money to the bank. If the overdraft hit the credit limit, then simply one couldn’t pay the bills. When that happened, the owners simply didn’t pay themselves. They often were paid less than the receptionist.
Most of the income comes from charging out staff time. Public holidays were a real burden because that week would mean 20% or 40% fewer billable hours, but still the same level of expenses.
So when Glenn says another few days won’t sink the banks, he is showing his lack of empathy and understanding of the hundreds of thousands of small businesses.
Also comparing to Iran or Colombia is puerile. Iran has so much oil it funds almost the entire country. Does he think NZ should do the same?
The useful comparison is with other OECD countries, and you compare statutory annual leave and public holidays. NZ has 31 days which means every fortnight you on average get at least a paid day off.
How does this compare:
- 38 – Austria
- 37 – Luxembourg
- 36 – Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Spain
- 35 – Norway
- 34 – Sweden
- 32 – Italy
- 31 – Estonia, NZ
- 30 – Australia, Belgium, Chile, South Korea, Germany
- 29 – Greece, Ireland
- 28 – Netherlands, UK
- 27 – Switzerland
- 21 – Israel
- 20 – EU
- 19 – Hong Kong, Taiwan
- 18 – Singapore
- 16 – Canada
- 10 – Japan
- 0 – US
So NZ is actually pretty generous compared to most OECD countries.