The minimum wage is now $16.50, a boost of 75 cents.

The Government says 164,000 workers and their families will now be better off.

The wage boost will put an extra $129-million into the pockets of workers every year.

It is a move signalled by the Labour-led Government some time ago.

Minister for Workplace Relations Iain Lees-Galloway told Parliament ahead of the Easter break that the increase will circulate back into the economy.

"People on lower incomes are more likely to spend their wages on essential items, like doctors visits, keeping on top of the bills and buying more healthy food, things that too many kiwi's struggle to afford."

National finance spokesperson Amy Adams says it is akin to what would have happened anyway under National.

"The increase in the minimum wage move to $16.50 an hour is not that different to where we would have been, every year under National we moved the minimum wage gradually as well."

 

Today is also the day the former government's tax changes would've come into effect.

Adams says the bottom two tax thresholds were due to be lifted, making workers on the average wage around one-thousand-dollars a year better off.