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Household power bills are set to rise across much of Auckland, in the latest of a string of price hikes by power companies.

In a move that will add between $5 and $6.50 to the average power bill, Mercury Energy will increase central Auckland power bills by 4 per cent on October 1. Customers in Manukau, Papakura and Franklin also face bigger bills, with rises of between 2.5 and 5.7 per cent on top of the average monthly bill of $165.

Mercury Energy said the rise was to cover "general increases in operating costs" including the cost of third-party suppliers. But consumer advocates said the latest round of price increases showed there was too little competition for our power bills.

Meridian Energy and Contact Energy have said they will raise prices by 6 per cent in coming months - an increase of around $10 a month for the average household.

And while energy analyst Molly Melhuish said the latest price hikes were no bigger than expected, there could be worse to come, as the effect of the winter's low lake levels continues trickling through into power bills.

Consumer New Zealand chief executive Sue Chetwin said households missed out on the benefits of competition in the power market. Most of the competition was for commercial and business users, she said. "The companies have this cosy arrangement where they don't really compete for new [household] customers," she said. Ms Chetwin said that since the power sector was deregulated, household power prices had risen while commercial and industrial power users had seen their bills flatline or even go down.

Ms Melhuish said New Zealand's power prices were high relative to the cost of making and distributing the power.

Ms Melhuish said the latest hikes would be too much for some people in Auckland. "It's a huge amount to people who cannot afford even the tiniest increase," she said.

Consumer New Zealand figures show household power bills rose between 7 and 10 per cent in the year to March.

The organisation runs a website where people can find which power company is the cheapest in their area: Powerswitch.

Figures out today show salary and wage rates as measured by the labour cost index (LCI) rose 3.1 per cent in the year to the end of September.

At the same time the quarterly employment survey (QES) for the same period, also published by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ), showed the annual increase in total gross earnings exceeded the annual increase in total paid hours.  That resulted in a 3.9 per cent annual increase in average total hourly earnings, to $23.10, SNZ said.

The LCI showed salary and wage rates, including overtime, for the private sector rose 3.2 per cent in the year to the September quarter, while in the public sector they increased 3 per cent.

Steady growth in earnings was also evident in the QES, where seasonally adjusted total gross earnings increased 6.1 per cent for the September year.  Employment, as measured by full-time equivalent employees remained relatively unchanged for the September quarter but increased 2.5 per cent for the September year.

The LCI showed private sector wages and salaries, either including or excluding overtime, up 0.9 per cent in the September quarter from the previous three months.  In the public sector the quarterly rise was 1.3 per cent.

According to the QES , private sector average total hourly earnings rose 1.3 per cent from the previous quarter and 3.5 per cent over the year to $21.59.  A 0.1 per cent slip left the number of full-time equivalent employees around 1.4 million.  The QES results showed the continued growth in business demand for labour, SNZ said.  The 2.5 per cent increase in full-time equivalent employees for the year was mainly driven by the property and business services and construction industries.

An expected, seasonal downturn in manufacturing activities had reduced the industries' contribution to average total hourly earnings during the September quarter, SNZ said.  According to the LCI, the industry groups with the largest annual increases in salary and wage rates, including overtime, were mining, which rose 4.9 per cent, followed by finance and insurance up 4.8 per cent.  Other notable movements were 3.1 per cent rises in both education and wholesale trade.

ASB Bank economist Daniel Wills said today's figures suggested the labour market remained tight.  Those ongoing wage pressures were going to underpin medium term inflation, he said.  Goldman Sachs

JBWere economist Shamubeel Eaqub said the data presented a contrasting picture, with the LCI pretty strong, while the QES was coming off.  "It looks like cost pressures are still there but the earnings impact from this is waning on the household sector," he said.  "Also the activity side of things was pretty weak, with paid hours growing by only 0.2 per cent in the quarter, consistent with our view that GDP in the third quarter was pretty soft."

The LCI measures changes in salary and wage rates for a fixed quantity and quality of labour input, while the QES average earnings statistics reflect not only changes in pay rates, but also compositional and other changes in the paid workforce.