Hon DAVID PARKER (Associate Minister of Finance) on behalf of the Minister of Finance: The estimated cost of the Government's 12-week, $5.1 billion wage subsidy scheme to support jobs and businesses assumes approximately 50 percent of employers, including the self-employed and sole traders, take up the scheme. That estimates approximately 270,000 employers and self-employed and sole traders taking up the scheme. This is comprised of approximately 10,000 larger employers with greater than 20 employees and approximately 260,000 employers with fewer than 20 employees or self-employed sole traders. Accordingly, the $5.1 billion package was estimated to directly benefit approximately 750,000 working New Zealanders, but, of course, the wider macroeconomic impact will clearly be larger.