Why does New Zealand take such a long summer holiday break?
Most Kiwis are counting down the days until their summer holiday - whether they're heading off camping, heading to the bach or just taking a few lazy days at the beach.
But has it always been this way?
Richard Wolfe is a cultural historian and the author of more than 40 books about Aotearoa.
"Leaving town over Xmas and January has become a key part of the local cultural identity," Wolfe said.
The New Zealand History website, operated by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, calls the summer lull an "end-of-year prize for being a New Zealander".
However, not everyone is 100 percent on board with our somewhat leisurely summer pause.
A post on LinkedIn by business adviser Toss Grumley went viral in the past week, as Grumley wrote that he was "baffled every year by New Zealand's intense Christmas shut down".
"In what world as an economy and country are we operating in an environment where no business discussion can happen for a period of ten weeks," he asked. His question sparked debates on news and social media sites.
On NewsTalk ZB on Monday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he had spent much of his career working overseas where the long holiday break wasn't the same.
"In the US you maybe get two weeks' annual leave holiday and Christmas is a couple of days off and you're back at it again.
"I've always been used to going back to work on the 3rd or 4th of January," he said.
Auckland Business Chamber head Simon Bridges told Stuff : "There is a view that New Zealand just shuts down not just for Christmas and New Year, but in many cases, all the way through to March."
How did our long summer break become such a Kiwi institution, anyway?
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Wolfe said one of the big factors behind our long summer break is, well, the summer weather. Our Australian cousins benefit from that, too.
"I suggest that what's behind the 'summer break' is, fairly obviously, the local (antipodean) climate," he said.
Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere is in the middle of winter which isn't quite as conducive to long camping holidays and days at the beach.
And despite the image of an entire country putting on the brakes, not everyone in New Zealand actually takes off the entire summer until March.
"We want to shop, go to the movies or watch TV, and we expect everything to be available, so hospitals, power suppliers, the police and many other essential services still run 24/7," NZ History noted. "And if we live on a farm, then summer means more work, not holidays."
We also roll Christmas and New Year together with our "summer holiday," which places like America and Europe tend to do in August. There are also only a couple of public holidays between June and Christmas like Matariki and Labour Day.
One commenter wrote on Grumley's LinkedIn post that "people are exhausted by the end of the year" here in New Zealand, "so we shut down for a solid month".
Changing laws, changing transport
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Holidays as we think of them now are a fairly modern invention.
According to Te Ara the online encyclopedia of New Zealand, originally the two statutory holidays for Christmas and New Year's at the height of summer "provided a compelling reason" to take a break.
As far back as the 1860s even gold miners would take a break then, as Coromandel goldfields granted two weeks' special protections over claims.
The long holiday began to evolve over the 20th century thanks to tightening labour laws and the growth of wider travel with the introduction of the automobile and trains.
"Another important factor may have been the introduction of the Annual Holidays Act in 1944, making a two-week paid holiday a legal entitlement for full-time employers," Wolfe said.
Compared to some countries, Kiwis get a generous amount of paid leave time.
The latest version of the Holidays Act from 2003 entitles employees to at least four weeks of paid annual leave after 12 months of continuous work.
That's quite a contrast to, say, America, where there is no legally mandated paid holiday time.
New Zealand's geography and compact size meant the beach was the most likely place for labourers and their families to go.
"Because no part of the country is more than 120 km from the nearest coastline, the beach and associated baches became popular destinations," Wolfe said.
"I would suggest that the 'summer break' was established in the period of post-war prosperity in the 1950s, with the continuing growth in the number of privately owned cars, thereby increasing personal and family mobility."
But does a break really impact our economy?
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In his opinion piece, Grumley claimed the long holiday affects New Zealand's productivity.
Not everyone agrees.
"Work less, live more," one commenter wrote in response to his post.
Fleur Fitzsimons, national secretary of the union Public Service Association, said holidays are important to workers.
"New Zealand has a culture of long hours, workers need more holidays to recharge, reconnect with their families and get ready for the working year ahead."
The government has announced changes to the Holidays Act, which would see both annual and sick leave accumulate based on hours worked. Unions and opposition parties have said they fear that could trample workers' rights and entitlements.
Fitzsimons said the government has been taking rights away from workers by cancelling pay equity and introducing changes to the Employment Relations Act, calling it "out of touch" with the needs of working New Zealanders.
"If the government is serious about improving productivity, cutting holidays is the wrong approach.
"We have a mental health crisis in New Zealand - the last thing we should be doing is talking about fewer holidays."
Wolfe said that the current summer break may help workers recharge their energy for the year ahead.
"A shorter break might in fact have the opposite effect - creating disgruntlement among workers who feel they're being short-changed," Wolfe said.
"And as climate change kicks in and the world gets warmer, perhaps the summer break will become vital for maintaining the health and welfare of New Zealanders."
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Secure your homes over summer
Police are reminding people to keep their homes secure during the summer months.
Inspector Glenda Barnaby, Christchurch Area Prevention manager, says daytime burglaries are just as common as nightime burglaries.
“Burglaries can be committed at any time of the day, and coming into warmer months there is more opportunity for thieves."
"Although a majority of burglaries involve forced entry through windows and doors, we are starting to see more incidents at insecure premises. Police deal with cases where burglaries are committed in broad daylight, sometimes even while the victim is at home. Good weather means open doors and windows, which makes homes more vulnerable to burglars.”
Inspector Barnaby says there’s a few things people can do to reduce their changes of a burglary being committed.
⚠️ If you’re going outside for gardening, relaxing in the sun, or working in the garage, take a moment to lock your doors and secure your windows first.
⚠️ Do the same at night when you go to bed - keep your doors and windows secure and close your curtains. Fitting window stays means you can get a breeze coming through, while keeping your windows secure.
⚠️ Get to know your neighbours - let them know if you’re going away and look out for one another.”
If you see any suspicious activity, people or vehicles in your neighbourhood, don't hesitate to contact Police.
If you witness or suspect any illegal activity, please call 111 if it is happening now, or make a report through 105 either online or over the phone, if it is after the fact.
Poll: Are our Kiwi summer holidays helping us recharge, or holding the economy back? ☀️🥝
There’s growing debate about whether New Zealand’s extended Christmas break (and the slowdown that comes with it) affects productivity.
Tracy Watkins has weighed in ... now it’s your turn. What’s your take? 🤔
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72.7% We work hard, we deserve a break!
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16.3% Hmm, maybe?
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11% Yes!
What sectors are barely paying more than minimum wage?
While New Zealand might have about a dozen sectors paying at least a median $100,000 a year, there are almost as many paying barely more than the minimum wage.
Data compiled by Infometrics showed the median and mean salaries across industries throughout the country.
The data does not adjust for hours worked, and some of the workers may not be working a 40-hour week.
But it shows that on an annual basis, many sectors were not delivering incomes that were equal to the minimum wage.
The minimum wage of $23.50 an hour works out to just under $49,000 a year for a full-time, 40-hour a week worker.
Fuel retailing was paying a median of almost exactly the same amount.
Food retailing was paying less, at $45,030. Accommodation was slightly more, at $49,240, and food and beverage services was significantly less at $40,170.
Also within $10,000 of minimum wage were "other store-based retailing" at $53,220, sport and recreation services at $53,350 and personal and other services at $54,170.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment data last year showed that about 141,900 people would be directly affected by the minimum wage rising to $23.50, indicating they were at that point being paid less than that amount per hour.
Infometrics principal economist Nick Brunsdon said skills and experience explained a lot of the variation in incomes.
"Industries that need a more skilled workforce generally pay more - because they can get a lot of value out of their workers, and workers need a good incentive to gain those skills - for example, medicine. Industries that take in a lot of lower qualified staff, like hospitality, can get away with paying a lot less, and still get plenty of job applicants.
"There are other factors like desirability - some jobs might not have a high skill requirement but are somewhat undesirable - say underground coal mining - so higher pay is necessary to find workers."
CTU policy director and economist Craig Enney said "hours adequacy" was a big problem in many sectors.
"You've got someone who's working 20 hours a week or 25 hours, on $25 an hour, so you're earning $500 a week. Is that enough? No.
"The challenge is often about the structure of employment in some of those sectors…In hospo, in retail, in catering, in a range of other sort of service-based industries, it's wanting more hours and not getting it."
The latest labour market statistics showed the the number of underutilised people in the country had risen to 403,000.
"These are people who want more hours, want more work and can't get it. And that may be a key reason why, you know, total incomes are so inadequate for some people. And that's also partially helping to explain why the headline unemployment rate is not rising as quickly as some people had predicted."
Jake Lilley, a spokesperson for financial mentor network Fincap, said it was something mentors dealt with.
"They also help people work out what is realistic in terms of taking on hours while balancing additional childcare costs. Our latest Voices reporting recorded 31 percent of those supported by a financial mentor as having a mix of income from salary or wages as well as income support.
"It is a real juggle to navigate finances when unpredictable sporadic hours of work need reporting to Work and Income in what can be impractical timeframes. An example might be someone being asked to stay on for a longer shift by their manager and being unable to contact Work and Income when that day is the deadline to report other income.
"Someone might also not know exactly what their pay will be until a payslip is provided after the reporting date. Such situations can often result in overpayment debts from Work and Income compounding the difficulty of administering already tight finances."
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