The minimum wage is something that vexes this Government, and that's because they just don't understand. With any pay rise, leave entitlement, or other changes in employee conditions, we must look at productivity to make sure we can pay for it, and, unfortunately, New Zealand doesn't cut it. We constantly compare ourselves with other countries when it comes to the minimum wage, work conditions, leave provisions, but we constantly ignore productivity, the most important factor that enables this country to provide different conditions to employees. Paying people more while expecting no extra productivity is just naive. People who work hard should be paid more.