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Photo: RNZ / Michelle Tiang Ever wondered how your household income compares to what your parents had, when you were growing up? Inflation has pushed up the cost of many things over recent decades, and in many cases, wage growth has helped soften the blow - with the notable exception of housing. Here's how the numbers compare. If you had a household income of $80,000 in the 1990s, you would need to be earning more than $200,000 now to have the same sort of purchasing power. In 1994, 113,500 New Zealand households earned more than $76,500, so a household income of $80,000 would have been relatively high. Now, the top decile of household income earners is about $235,000. In 1994, that $80,000 household would have after-tax income per person of $29,579 if the income was evenly split, an ann...

SkyCity casino's have been forced to close their doors this week, after they failed to intervene to meet their host responsibilities to help a problem gambler avoid losing more than $1 million. Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro SkyCity casino has been shut down for five days for failing to help a problem gambler who lost more than a million dollars on the pokies, but the business' boss will not say if they have paid any back. The shutdown began at midnight Sunday and runs until Friday night. On one occasion the gambler spent up to 9 hours playing continuously. On 23 occasions between 2017 and 2021 they played for five hours or more without a break and no casino staff intervened. The five day gambling shut down is SkyCity's punishment for failing to meet its harm minimisation and host responsibility...

The national average value fell 2 percent in the three months ending August. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly National house values continue to fall, with plenty of stock available helping to keep prices down. The latest QV House Price Index shows the national average value fell 2 percent in the three months ended in August over the year earlier, but was up slightly from the previous three months ended July. The average home was valued at $905,357, which was little changed from the start of the calendar year. "This is reflective of a housing market that has been severely constricted by strong economic headwinds - including rising unemployment, credit constraints and, of course, high interest rates," QV operations manager James Wilson said. While interest rates were coming ...

Bruce Plested is the co-founder of Mainfreight and one of New Zealand's wealthiest people. He shares his philosophy on business, charity - and a little politics - as part of RNZ's new series, RICH: The meaning of wealth in Aotearoa. What's one sign of a bad workplace culture? For 82-year-old billionaire Bruce Plested, it's dirty toilets. Because a grubby loo isn't just poor hygiene, it's also a sign staff, no matter their role or status, are not taking pride in their workplace. Plested, the founder, largest shareholder and chairman of Mainfreight, puts great store in the state of his company's bathrooms. "Here, we clean the toilets in this big branch at lunch time so we're spick and span and you've got to have brushes and toilet paper and hooks to put your clothes on." It reflects the high...