When contacted by the Herald, Skoe confirmed that Trade Me would not be paying back the wage subsidy. "We applied for the original wage subsidy, along with thousands of other Kiwi companies, in order to get through that very tough time. "Without the wage subsidy, and other significant cost savings, we would have had to make far more drastic changes to our headcount than we eventually did." Trade Me did not apply for any later rounds of the wage subsidy and had not paid any dividends to its owners, Skoe said. A growing number of large businesses have opted to voluntarily pay back the wage subsidy they received following growing criticism from the public and politicians - including the Prime Minister - on the moral ground of posting profits on the back of wage subsidy gains.

Source: Otago Daily Times January 28, 2021 22:30 UTC