jad n rich

Why would it be just the sunshine coast, the exact same problems exists in many areas not only in qld, nsw coasts, in victoria once out of the main 2 hour radius, tasmania, adelaide.

I would be surprised if low wages, workplace reform, casual labour, part time on call, days off without pay dont exist in plenty of industries in perth too.

Amazulu

I'm sure they do but there are plenty of jobs - with great pay, conditions and perks - going that are not being filled. The labour shortage here is severe.

bridie

true... my OH was on crap money in the UK, just underpaid basically but here he is on equivalent to £3 an hour more AND does less hours - he used to do 10hr days in UK 7 til 5, here he does 7 til 3.30 and still brings home more even though he only does flat weeks compared to overtime...

he is lucky as he is going back to the engineering company (after the whole apprenticeship/bullshit debacle!) he started with when we first arrived and they are paying him the rate he left on

so no complaints here

steve99

Totally agree, there's never been a better time to secure a role in Perth, a lot of roles dont even have a fixed budgets anymore, employers would rather see anyone at any level of the market than not see anyone at all because they've stipulated too low a salary.

Across all industry sectors employers are realising they cant afford to lose people, the cost of finding someone new, generally taking some sort of risk on them as there not much more than an 80% fit, having to train them up etc all adds up and the salary portion is'nt as big a chunk of the overall cost as people imagine.
I'd say now is the time for people to negotiate a better deal if their not being paid market rate.

auspal

Of course the business owners are going to say that.

And even before the new IR laws were introduced, if an employer wanted rid there wasnt a problem (except if it was a government job maybe.)

I can speak from personal experience of a family member, and also working in the Employment industry on the Gold Coast for five years, from 1995 to 2000.

I believe the IR laws will cost the goverment the next election.

steve`o

do we really need the unions party in office ??
oops i mean labour party

Amazulu

Yep. It'll be unions running the country and jobs for the boys.

steve`o

only till they bring the country to its knees aka uk early eighties

auspal

We'll see

Amazulu

The best description of socialism I've heard:
Socialism is a condom on the prick of progress.

kevinbloomfield

So off the subject it goes :-)
I think people on their way over need to know the situation regarding work and wages. I reckon if you could get $50,000 a year and a permanent contract up here you'd be one of the very few. Remember, that's only the equivelent of 20,000 pounds and almost everything costs either the same or more here. OK, petrol's cheaper and the insurance is less but you have to pay more for a 2nd hand car and the annual rego is on par with the road tax in the UK.

Don't get me wrong, we love it here and we can't see us ever going back to the UK, we aren't even that keen to go back for a holiday. As long as people are happier living in a cleaner, friendlier and altogether nicer place then they'll be fine. If they want a full time, permanent and well paid job then stay in the UK.

By the way, the only people in favour of the work reforms are employers, I've yet to hear of an employee coming out on top. The government are spending 10's of thousands of $$ on TV adverts trying to make the reforms look good. Only because an election is looming of course!

mark937

Spot on Kev! The adverts are wearing thin now......everyone's complaining about them, they'll do nothing to sway the election. I think what you've provided is a very realistic scenario, $50k on a permanent contract - rare to find but if you get it great! Out of the $50k you have to allow for all your expenditure, a $390k mortgage works out at approx $2700 a month, allow $600-800 for groceries (family of 5) $400 on petrol (depending on amount of travel) $100 broadband internet, $80 mobile phone $50 medical (sometimes more) plus theres elecy,gas,water and of course rates etc It all adds up!

snow-white

hi all, we arrived august 20th so not long im afraid my oh is qualified plumber gasfitter over ten years experience, anyway we did the whole licence application thing and found can only get his provisional has to do a course which takes a few months if he does it from home to regain full plumbing licence. gasfitting no go until hes had lpg experience. so a little dissapointed off we went sending out cvs got his bluecard and within 3 weeks of arriving started work for a construction company . hes been there 1 month been made permanent and on $85,000 per year before tax. we live on goldcoast only downside is he travels an hour to get to work every day
me and my friend have set up our own business it goes live on web by monday Gold coast relocations decided if you cant beat em join them plus with 6 kids trying to find a job that fits in with school run and childcare costs better off starting off working from home you can but try
lesley

SJR

Hi

We live in WA, regional and salaries aren't good. My husband is an IT specialist and is being paid around 60K per year but he has now changed from employed to contracting so he can supplement that with other work and charge a higher hourly rate. I work for a British guy and most of my work is for UK companies. I get $30 per hour which is pretty good for regional WA. We weren't prepared for the drop that my husband was going to have to take in salary and subsequently, we struggle financially!

Wendy

I agree on all points.

My OH is on $60k per year, in the UK he was on £25,000

I have noticed that a lot of the 'I'm on less money here' and 'the wages are crap here' seem to be from people in IT or similar industies.