Tricky Nicky

I've been offered a job in Perth on a 457. Salary is $92000 including super. I am currently self employed here and earn an average of £28k before tax. My wife doesn't work and we have two kids, 8 & 5 yrs old.

Given the above, is making the move likely to improve our financial reality as we do very much struggle here and would hate to find ourselves in similar situation there. My wife would be happy to work part time to supplement the income.

Appreciate that the whole cost of living/lifestyle debate is very subjective but some general opinions/feedback based on our basic circumstances would be greatly appreciated.

Chortlepuss

Someone from Perth will be along to advise you in due course. That is a relatively low salary and you will not be flush. But if you can live out in the sticks a bit it may be O.K. Assume you're getting LAFHA? When I came out to Brissie I was on a $110K package with hubby not working initially. Two kids (publicly educated) one small car. Do-able but not comfortable as rent/food/clothes is very expensive here. On that salary you won't be having exotic holidays or flying home to see relatives unless you've got savings.

h2oskineil

Salary is a hard thing to advise on, everyone has different expectations of living. My advise would be look at the house prices here and make sure that your salary will cover a mortgage, assuming you are selling your UK home for a deposit, you'll still need to borrow quite a lot (in most cases) to buy a house here. The cost of housing here (compared to the UK) is astronomical for something nice, having said that, you do get a lot more house for your money.
If your planning on renting, expect to pay $450 - $650 per week for something half decent.

Check the conditions of the 457 visa, I arrived on one of these. I was with a very good company with 100 years of history in WA and so they were not about to go belly up. Just check the same for the company sponsoring you.. I have employed quite a few people of the past few years who had lost their jobs and had to find new sponsors or leave the country (I think it's still 28 days).

Who Responsibility

Employer


* apply to be a sponsor to recruit overseas workers
* nominate the occupations you want to fill, and the employees you want to fill those positions
* recruit the overseas workers to fill your nominated positions
* act as a sponsor for your employees applying for a visa
* cooperate with department's monitoring requirements
* meet obligations as part of the program

Employee


* accepts the offer of employment from the employer
* applies for a visa
* meets all conditions on their visa

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/booklets/books9.htm

What business are you in? You should get plenty of advise on here about the job prospects and whether you'll get plenty of work. Do you plan to get residency after your 457? Watch for age restrictions and if your qualifications are recognised in Oz.

cubeonly

Mmmmm, what business are you in? How old are you?

Tricky Nicky

Hi Cubeonly - I'm an architect, 38yrs old.

Tricky Nicky

Thanks Chortlepuss. As I say, we very much struggle here and are far from flush. Have never had an exotic holiday in my life and actually welcome the idea of doing the camping thing seeing as the weather would allow anyway! Thanks again.

Bermudashorts

I think commenting in absolute terms is futile as we all have different expectations and are used to different things; I thnk a comparison to your current situation might be a better test.

First impresson is that your offer favours reasonably well compared to your UK salary, beng 3.3$ to the 1£, but one of the big factors is accommodation cost. If you are currently living in the north with a tiny mortgage (say) then that comparison is suddenly not looking quite as good. I would be tempted to compare your estmated take home after rent / mortgage and then see how it compares. 4

If after eliminating accommodation here and there, you are left with $2.5 for every £ you currently have you will probably find yourself in a similar situtation financially. More than this and you will probably find yourself better off and less than this and you could find yourself worse off. Obviously 2.5 is not a magic number, it is just a rough guide.

cubeonly

Hi, from my research, I would say a professional of your standing and age should expect AUD 200,000+. AUD 92,000 sounds low.

Bermudashorts

Aren't you an engneer? How do you know what an architect earns and what has age got to do with it? I know people in same professon and same age as me that earn half what I do, I also know that some would earn double.

cubeonly

Hi, I'm an engineer and my brother is an architect. He lives and works in Russia at the moment but doesn't currently earn any where near equiv of AUD 200,000; however from my research of Aus I believe the OP should expect 200,000.
I believe age does come in to it, especially as you get older (like me!). Experience and age-seniority are recognised by employers; indeed in my current role I'm a senior engineer but I only have the "senior" bit to my title because of my age (my belief anyway!) which commands more remuneration!

Bermudashorts

Really? I find your ideas odd. I thought the days of rewarding people on age or tenure were long over. Just thinking about my profession, accountant, some continue to rise through the ranks and others just stay at a certain level and nothing wrong with that; we can't all be CFOs after all. I don't see how you can possibly judge what salary the OP should beon, what level they are at in their career, considering you know nothing about the OP.

Tricky Nicky

I feel I should intervene.........

Of all the professions, Architects are notoriously underpaid/undervalued and this seems to be international. I am being offered a fairly senior position and have been told by the employer that they offer higher than average salaries. My research would suggest that this is true.

However, I do agree that age and experience should be reflected in salary as it translates directly into benefit to an organisation. On that basis, I will be negotiating but felt I should get some advice first.

My gut feeling is that this is merely a starting point and I would have opportunity to prove myself once over there and discuss increases accordingly. That aside, the offer represents significantly more than I earn here now and although cost of living is higher there, as a family we know how to live within our means and do not crave a luxurious lifestyle. The essence of the lifestyle available over there is not necessarily linked to cost and so from that point of view the salary is arguably irrelevant......discuss!

cubeonly

I like this discussion it's a fun topic. My architect brother would certainly agree with you; back in his univ days at Bristol he was of the opinion that his chosen career would give him licence to print money and that I as a mechanical engineer would always be behind him, however over the years I've done quite well and he's been underpaid in my view.

Re. the age thing, I turned 50 last year and feel that as an oil gas engineering contractor I have seen people wanting to hire me on better rates because I'm over 50 and so should therefore know what I'm talking about (!).

The salary is a good starting point for negotiation, but I would say try to negotiate higher. I wonder that some Aus employers may attempt to play on the current AUD-GBP exchange rate, knowing that their salaries convert to a big-sounding number of GBPs at today's AUD/GBP 1.53 rate; but of course back in Aus nothing's changed. . . there has to be room to negotiate upwards! If you catch my drift. . .

cubeonly

I appreciate your well-worded points. I happen to believe that I can loosely (but somewhat dangerously) gauge a salary based on the job title and age of the candidate. I might be wrong, I'm no human resources expert, but in my recent years it seems to work for me.

Tricky Nicky

Enjoying the discussion also cube and thanks for input.

Your estimate of $200k is way of the mark though unfortunately so would perhaps stick to the day job! I totally agree that it's what I SHOULD be earning but sadly not the reality.

Mention the subject of salary to any fully qualified and dedicated architect and they will invariably and instantaneously start twitching and become red in the face if you can imagine....rightly so too!