A new council plan with a goal to lift annual wages in Central Otago by close to $12,000 in ten years is out for public consultation. 

Presenting the draft Economic Development Strategy at a full district council meeting last week, staff lead Nick Lanham acknowledged the target was intended to be ambitious. 

Central Otago's average wage income is $66,867 compared to the national average of $78,731. 

“Central Otago sits at 85 percent (of the national average)...10 years ago we sat at 80 percent,” Nick told the mayor and councillors at the meeting. 

“Our wage incomes are growing at a rate faster than the national average, so in another 10 years, by the end of this strategy, if all remains the same, we would sit about 90 percent.” 

However, the "overarching target” of the strategy was to raise the bar to 100 percent and reach the national average, he said. 

“I think we're all conscious about the cost of living, affordability, how much an issue that is for our community...this is something that obviously economic development, I feel, can lean into.” 

Central Otago mayor Tamah Alley welcomed the document, calling it “really tangible” and the wage goal “lofty”.

“We shouldn’t be lagging behind - we are thriving. We should have business feeling like they can pay above and beyond what people are worth without it impacting their bottom line,” she said before voting to adopt the draft for consultation.

She did caution that its success, in her view, would rely on “everybody working together”.

Nick said a key to the strategy was driving productivity.

“It’s not saying, ‘Hey we just need to pay people more’. It’s, ‘Well, how do we become more productive so that businesses are more profitable and that some of those profits are shared with workers’.”

Feedback is now invited on the draft strategy, which was produced after 11 workshops held across the district, including industry-focused ones, and an online survey that received more than 200 responses. 

The draft strategy has a ten-year lifespan and will replace a five-year economic development strategy that expired last year. 

The vision for the new strategy is: “A thriving Central Otago where increasing incomes, sustainable growth and shared prosperity are driven by innovation, investment, and the adoption of new technologies”. 

Nick expects the draft plan to be consulted on and brought back to the council for adoption by December or January. 

The draft strategy is up on the council’s website, while further information on the consultation process will be available via Let’s Talk.

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