More and more New Zealand workers are taking pay cuts with new figures showing 22% of employees were forced to take a pay cut in the last year.

The latest figures from the Employers and Manufacturers Association shows a lot of people have been prepared to take one for the team this year, recognising that now is not a good time to ask for a pay rise.

The association surveyed 38,000 of its members and one in five had suffered a pay cut, such as the people at Wickliffe Press in Otago who took a temporary 5% cut.

"It wasn't an easy decision, it wasn't an easy process to sell it in but we got everyone together and talked about why we were doing it and why we felt it was important, what the alternatives were. And we were really pleased with the level of support we got," says spokesman Steve Silvey.

But Jarrod Moyle, whose occupation is deciding what a job is worth, says a lot of individuals will be thinking they ought to be rewarded for sticking it out over this tough time.

The wage and salary survey found 9% of people received no increase in pay this year, while the average overall pay increase was 2.5%, with most less than 1%.

Northern EMA employment services manager David Lowe says new employees are often hired on lower rates than the staff they replaced.

The areas hardest hit by salary decreases include electronics technicians, human resources, receptionists and accounts clerks. Rates in food retail dropped 3.3%.

But electricians have received on average an 18% or $10,000 increase while engineers saw a 5.6% pay increase as companies sought to retain skilled workers.

"Businesses know that skills are the key to their recovery," Lowe says.

Union boss Robert Reid says thousands of Kiwis are dealing with pay cuts and the result is a surge in personal grievances.

"We have many more people suffering out there than the statistics show," says Reid.

And it's not just cold hard cash we're going without. Executives in particular are losing cars, super payments and performance bonuses.

The only organisation doing more hiring seems to be WINZ which has had a large increase in clients as more people head for the dole queue.

Business Roundtable executive director Roger Kerr says the survey results reflect ongoing difficulties in many parts of the economy.

"There's clearly some major adjustment still called for in the economy to get more resources into our export industries."

Companies have set realistic pay increases to keep unemployment down, he says.

"They've had to cut costs in order to preserve the viability of the firm and jobs, and that's a sensible reaction. 

"It makes good sense for wage adjustments to be moderate to preserve employment.

(This article featured on www.tvnz.co.nz on 11/11/09. Go to the Moyle Consulting home page to watch the video of the news item.)