Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's why pay rates are staying stubbornly low. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Workers should be thrilled right now. Unemployment is low and companies are crying out for skilled people to hire.

This is usually the dream situation for the employee, where you have the leverage over your boss, because you’ll be hard to replace.

Usually, this is when wages start going up.

So it’s a little bit strange that wages are staying stubbornly low, across the board.

The latest data from Westpac and McDermott Miller backs this up.

Their Employment Confidence Index has fallen, with employees worried about lower job opportunities.

One of the biggest areas employees were worried about is pay, with fewer people getting a pay rise in the last year.

Even worse, the number of people expecting a raise in the coming year was at a record low.

For the latest Cooking the Books I talked to Westpac senior economist Michael Gordon.

We talked about why people aren't expecting a pay rise, whether the gloom is misplaced, and how the global economy is changing things.

For the interview, listen to the podcast.

If you have a question about this podcast, or an idea for the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/ Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/ and Twitter here https://twitter.com/FrancesCook