Fenton

Personally speaking I think the wages in Oz are fine coming from Northern Ireland where the average wage is about 15-17,000 a year, with the average rental price for a 3 bedroom house being £550 a month I dont really see a problem with them. ..Also to take into account higher car insurance higher food prices..Oz is a postive and welcome improvement

BadgeIsBack

I reckon the way most Aussies manage is by 2 incomes and the main breadwinner, your average tradie has a ABN and can afford the ute, the mortgage and all the trappings by being tax efficient with his own business.

Brit migrants in some jobs just do not command high salaries when they start out. Salaries are not spectacular, I agree, but not all wages in Australia are low.

Not all Brits are raking it in either.

bridie

See that's the thing, if you were on excellent money in the UK then yes, the money here is poor, but in our case OH was paid crap in the UK, well under what he should have been on, so when we arrived and he was paid $25 an hour to start with that was a payrise!!

Amazulu

Not everyone in Perth is on crap wages. The resources sector (mining/O&G/energy) pays very well and not just people based on site in the pilbara. Staff in Perth are on top money too and, again, not just engineering people. Secretaries, document controllers, admin staff are on good candy.

Loads of people work in resources in Perth too.

Vanessa

My OH pays his PA about $65k a year and says that is about average for that level.

BadgeIsBack

Most people moving to Perth are taking advantage of the resources boom.

Anyone who can afford it and is not in resources probably bought before the boom.

Anyone moving there now and not in resources or not able to structure their remuneration so it is high should not be considering it (in opinion)!

My advice in general - doesn't just apply to Perth : some Brit migrants cannot command high remuneration when they first come over. It might take awhile so come with savings and savvy and look to go it alone....wages are low in some fields.

Most Brit migrants are very comfortable in UK having worked the system and are at the right level.
It does not necessarily follow you'll enter at the same level, OR, this is the thing, pay structure in Australia.

Amazulu

Is that a good salary for a PA? I have no idea.
My lowest payed guy is on just under $100k. He does all my drawing/document management and some CAD work

Amazulu

I suppose Perth is now like any other resources boom town of the past/present. You are either in the boom or not. I'm sure it's the same in places like Calgary/Houston/Aberdeen. In a way it's like London now. Lot's of wealth for some but others are being left behind and are living on the fringes of the boom.

rabsody

yes that's a good salary for a PA, here in brisbane top wages for a PA is $50k a year.

BadgeIsBack

Indeed. But the current boom (lifestyle/housing) seems to have lasted what 10 years.

One of the reasons we moved to Australia was to reposition our place in it forwards and to neutralise the relative lateness with which we got into it. To get 'onside' of it.

alicecat

Redeployees! The walking dead who get preference over anyone with a pulse!!!

I guess you are trying to get into the public service?

Pollyana

I'm in the public service, been in it 15 years in the UK and 3 years here. Just can't get a permanent position - the excuses have been that I'm not young enough/Australian/on a perm visa (fixed that one now/pregnant/got enough public service experience/been redeployed. I'm up for another two in the next fortnight...can only dream of what the excuses will be this time

alicecat

Unbelievable that they say you don't have enough public service experience!! Have you got your Certificate 12 in Stapling and Filing? No chance for anything at all without that!!!

I am trying to get in as well. I am permanent now but doing the lowest of the low positions and getting treated like it. My boss advised I apply for that position while I was temping because it was the only way they could employ me without being forced to use a redeployee. He said once I was in I could apply for anything but not before as I had buckleys of getting anything.

However if I hear another story about how someone walked in to use the toilet 15 years ago and were put on permanent straight away into a great job and now they are on 80K a year or whatever rubbish it is I will scream.

Pollyana

We have a whole bunch of those. One who wears nice short skirts with her long legs beat me to a job last year that I had been doing for over 12 months. She is now acting two levels up, having not applied for any of the 5 higher duties posts she has done so far. The guy who gave her 'my' job just slides her into them and she just hitches her skirt a bit higher. We have one AO2 who is a receptionist but can't speak English, and another two who have just worked out (after a year) that its OK to delete emails - they had EVERYTHING - including "Security has a parcel for you" and "ignore the firebell its a drill" from 12 months ago.:curse: I believe one of them is studying for her Stapling certificate as she was measuring the staples last week to find out if they would fit in the stapler............the other is doing an Advanced Diploma in Faxing but hasn't yet realised that the faxes don't go anywhere if you send them to your own phone number. - she asked today why she kept picking up the phone only to find a machine screeching at her on the end of it........

renth

Here's the pay scales for non-academic staff at UWA.

Highest level 10 would be a school manager of a large school of Faculty manager. Smaller school's managers would be level 7 - 9.

http://www.hr.uwa.edu.au/page/67595