Inequality in New Zealand was put in stark relief this week when an annual child poverty report was released the same day as bumper state sector salary figures, a University of Otago academic says.
Prof Ralph Adler, of the department of accountancy and finance, was struck by the coincidental release of the two reports.
''You can juxtapose these salaries with today's story about child poverty.'' Prof Adler told the Otago Daily Times on Tuesday.
He rejected claims big salaries led to good performance, saying academic research backed his view.
''There is plenty of research that suggests that that's not what motivates people [to do a good job].
''The question is why are these particular people so special that it's required? I would say that when people have jobs of a more challenging and enriched nature, it's the work itself, and not the salary [that motivates people].''
Prof Adler was surprised by the increases disclosed on Tuesday, which seemed out of step with increasing concern about economic inequality.
District health board, tertiary, public service chiefs and other statutory Crown entity chiefs received, in respective order, increases of 2.6%, 2.9%, 1.3%, and 3.8%.
The highest paid state sector boss was New Zealand Super Fund chief executive Adrian Orr, who received $950,000 to $959,999 in 2015-16.
''Have these wages been so low that we need to get them up to some level - what level will people finally say we're there?
''Each one of these [increases] is substantially higher than inflation,'' Prof Adler said.
Prof Adler is the director of the Otago Centre for Organisational Performance Measurement and Management. The rate of inflation is 0.4%.
Public Service Association national secretary Glenn Barclay said in a press release the average public servant received an increase of 0.7%.
''When performance pay is taken into account, the average executive is paid 6.6 times more than the average public servant.
''We agree the public service needs excellent leaders, but the gap between executive and staff pay would be unacceptable to most New Zealanders,'' Mr Barclay said.
