Hard lockdowns across New Zealand have driven the first ever decline in annual median weekly incomes, according to Statistics New Zealand:
Median weekly incomes were lower in the June 2020 quarter than they were a year ago, down 7.6 percent to $652 a week, in the wake of COVID-19, Stats NZ said today.
The median is the midpoint, meaning half of workers earned above this amount and half earned below. Stats NZ uses the median value because it is less influenced by very high or very low earners than a mean average.
