The minimum wage may be going up by 50 cents to $15.75 per hour from April, but there are calls for it to go higher.

SEE ALSO: Minimum wage rise won't meet cost of living: Union

Labour's workplace relations and safety spokesperson Iain Lees-Galloway said with rampant housing costs, this increase doesn't even cover the rise in rent.

He told Rachel Smalley most people on the minimum wage are renting.

"I would have said when you've got house price inflation at around about 5.8 percent, then a figure that was a little bit closer to that would be appropriate," he said.

Mr Lees-Galloway said the real problem is the number of people who are on the minimum wage or have their wage directly affected by the minimum wage, which he said is around 200,000 people.

"If fewer people were reliant on the minimum wage, then it wouldn't be such a difficult balancing act for the government because you wouldn't have so many people who were reliant on that decision."

LISTEN ABOVE AS LABOUR'S IAN LEES-GALLOWAY SPEAKS WITH RACHEL SMALLEY