NZ wages for nurses
Jun 28th 2011, 4:56 pm
#1
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Joined: Nov 2008
Location: Christchurch New Zealand
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NZ wages for nurses
Hi im gedsys wife Corinne hoping to move to NZ by the end of this year. I am a registered nurse with over 10 years experience in various health settings, I have been looking at the payscale for NZ nurses and it appears to be based on 5 increments do they place you on the payscale depending on your experience. I am a little confused as I have heard some info stating you negotiate your salary with the employer then I have also heard it depends on your previous experience. I am aware the wages are lower in NZ but I would just like to see how much my annual pay is going to decrease.
Jun 28th 2011, 6:47 pm
#2
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Posts: 4,298
Re: NZ wages for nurses
Hi im gedsys wife Corinne hoping to move to NZ by the end of this year. I am a registered nurse with over 10 years experience in various health settings, I have been looking at the payscale for NZ nurses and it appears to be based on 5 increments do they place you on the payscale depending on your experience. I am a little confused as I have heard some info stating you negotiate your salary with the employer then I have also heard it depends on your previous experience. I am aware the wages are lower in NZ but I would just like to see how much my annual pay is going to decrease.
Jun 28th 2011, 8:15 pm
#3
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Posts: 734
Re: NZ wages for nurses
Kate started on $55k back in mid 2005 with about 15 years of experience right up to G grade, she is now on around $76k in a charge nurse role without shifts mon-fri 9-5. The current job requires a masters as it is in a specific area of nursing. I am sure you will be paid according to your experience. But you will need to go to the DHB you want to work in to see what is on offer. Good luck.
But best place to start is looking up the DHB for jobs in that area or you could try an agent specialised in nursing to help, we used an agency for my OH and found them realy helpful.
What you need to bear in mind regarding your salary is that if you take it £1 = $1 you will actually be paid more here if you dont do the whole conversion thing back to GBP, remember when you come here you are earning $$$ not £
Last edited by alanmacc; Jun 28th 2011 at 8:18 pm.
Jun 28th 2011, 9:11 pm
#4
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Re: NZ wages for nurses
Like Genisis has said most start on or around the standard $55k mark which does not take into account any shift allownaces or weekend OT.
But best place to start is looking up the DHB for jobs in that area or you could try an agent specialised in nursing to help, we used an agency for my OH and found them realy helpful.
What you need to bear in mind regarding your salary is that if you take it £1 = $1 you will actually be paid more here if you dont do the whole conversion thing back to GBP, remember when you come here you are earning $$$ not £
But best place to start is looking up the DHB for jobs in that area or you could try an agent specialised in nursing to help, we used an agency for my OH and found them realy helpful.
What you need to bear in mind regarding your salary is that if you take it £1 = $1 you will actually be paid more here if you dont do the whole conversion thing back to GBP, remember when you come here you are earning $$$ not £
Jun 28th 2011, 10:15 pm
#5
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Joined: May 2002
Location: Christchurch NZ
Posts: 179
Re: NZ wages for nurses
Like Genisis has said most start on or around the standard $55k mark which does not take into account any shift allownaces or weekend OT.
But best place to start is looking up the DHB for jobs in that area or you could try an agent specialised in nursing to help, we used an agency for my OH and found them realy helpful.
What you need to bear in mind regarding your salary is that if you take it £1 = $1 you will actually be paid more here if you dont do the whole conversion thing back to GBP, remember when you come here you are earning $$$ not £
But best place to start is looking up the DHB for jobs in that area or you could try an agent specialised in nursing to help, we used an agency for my OH and found them realy helpful.
What you need to bear in mind regarding your salary is that if you take it £1 = $1 you will actually be paid more here if you dont do the whole conversion thing back to GBP, remember when you come here you are earning $$$ not £
Generally speaking, $1 here doesn’t buy you what £1 does in the UK, even now with the UK in dire straits.
Let me expand on that, if you were moving to Hong Kong, would you then say that you are earning HK dollars, so $1HK = £1 which would seem rather silly, as £1 gets you approx 12.5 HK dollars, and $1HK in HK certainly doesn’t buy you what £1 would in the UK.
I agree that you have to start thinking in $NZ but we shouldn’t give people the impression that a dollar here will buy you what a pound would in the UK… well not yet anyway. To say “you are paid more here” isn’t correct I’m afraid, as the actual denominations bear no relevance unless you are either trading them globally (as in exchanging currency), or that prices are all the same both here and the UK, that is everything that costs a pound there is marked up as a dollar here…. NO WAY!
In a nutshell, $55k here will not get you as far as £55k in the UK. There are however many variables and anomalies, by which I mean, some things cost more here, and some less. On the whole, I would state that most “goods” cost more here, but insurance, levies, revenues tend to be a little “cheaper”.
A good exercise for food stuffs would be to go online and compare Tesco (UK) to say Woolworths (NZ).
For DIY and building materials you could compare say Wicks with Mitre 10 (NZ not AU). You might get a shock there!
Hope this helps.
Jun 28th 2011, 10:40 pm
#6
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Joined: Mar 2008
Location: Rolleston
Posts: 734
Re: NZ wages for nurses
Sorry to disagree, but the statement that you will be paid more here if you don’t do the conversion, doesn’t make sense, either from a global or local economic viewpoint. You are comparing peanuts with oranges.
Generally speaking, $1 here doesn’t buy you what £1 does in the UK, even now with the UK in dire straits.
Let me expand on that, if you were moving to Hong Kong, would you then say that you are earning HK dollars, so $1HK = £1 which would seem rather silly, as £1 gets you approx 12.5 HK dollars, and $1HK in HK certainly doesn’t buy you what £1 would in the UK.
I agree that you have to start thinking in $NZ but we shouldn’t give people the impression that a dollar here will buy you what a pound would in the UK… well not yet anyway. To say “you are paid more here” isn’t correct I’m afraid, as the actual denominations bear no relevance unless you are either trading them globally (as in exchanging currency), or that prices are all the same both here and the UK, that is everything that costs a pound there is marked up as a dollar here…. NO WAY!
In a nutshell, $55k here will not get you as far as £55k in the UK. There are however many variables and anomalies, by which I mean, some things cost more here, and some less. On the whole, I would state that most “goods” cost more here, but insurance, levies, revenues tend to be a little “cheaper”.
A good exercise for food stuffs would be to go online and compare Tesco (UK) to say Woolworths (NZ).
For DIY and building materials you could compare say Wicks with Mitre 10 (NZ not AU). You might get a shock there!
Hope this helps.
Generally speaking, $1 here doesn’t buy you what £1 does in the UK, even now with the UK in dire straits.
Let me expand on that, if you were moving to Hong Kong, would you then say that you are earning HK dollars, so $1HK = £1 which would seem rather silly, as £1 gets you approx 12.5 HK dollars, and $1HK in HK certainly doesn’t buy you what £1 would in the UK.
I agree that you have to start thinking in $NZ but we shouldn’t give people the impression that a dollar here will buy you what a pound would in the UK… well not yet anyway. To say “you are paid more here” isn’t correct I’m afraid, as the actual denominations bear no relevance unless you are either trading them globally (as in exchanging currency), or that prices are all the same both here and the UK, that is everything that costs a pound there is marked up as a dollar here…. NO WAY!
In a nutshell, $55k here will not get you as far as £55k in the UK. There are however many variables and anomalies, by which I mean, some things cost more here, and some less. On the whole, I would state that most “goods” cost more here, but insurance, levies, revenues tend to be a little “cheaper”.
A good exercise for food stuffs would be to go online and compare Tesco (UK) to say Woolworths (NZ).
For DIY and building materials you could compare say Wicks with Mitre 10 (NZ not AU). You might get a shock there!
Hope this helps.
We used to compare what we could get back over there with what we pay here but decided quickly that you were not getting a true comaprison as we live in very diferent economies with a population base far less. UK has around 60m people where as NZ has 4m so you cant really expect teh same infrastructure in both contries to match.
Yes you acn do a comparison in shopping prices but then you need to take into account the amount of goods we import here and all associated costs involded in bringing goods into NZ, for example if you take a 40' container regardless of how full it is from the UK to NZ charges will be around the $4k mark which you need to incorporate into the nett cost of goods to give a true landed value and ensure you contiunue to make profit as a business .......................
Hold on what am i doing
im not here to tell people how to budget their money ......... right somebody slap me and tell me to shut up
Jun 29th 2011, 1:45 am
#7
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Joined: Nov 2002
Location: NZ since 2003.
Posts: 1,433
Re: NZ wages for nurses
http://www.healthstaffrecruitment.co...ew-zealand.pdf
http://www.nzno.org.nz/LinkClick.asp...k%3D&tabid=436
These 2 links will clarify salary scales, however there is a new MECA from 2010.
Salary is linked to years of experience as a staff nurse/qualifed RN. So if you have been qualified 10 years you would be on the top step of $60,159.
If you have a nurse specialist/Clinical Nurse Manager etc position these are on a grade system 1-9 and it is the job not the person who dictates the grade. Within that grade there are 3 incremental steps.
This is for District Health Board positions and are set by the union collective agreement.
I hope this clarifies the wages situation.
Any further questions, please just ask,
Gill
http://www.nzno.org.nz/LinkClick.asp...k%3D&tabid=436
These 2 links will clarify salary scales, however there is a new MECA from 2010.
Salary is linked to years of experience as a staff nurse/qualifed RN. So if you have been qualified 10 years you would be on the top step of $60,159.
If you have a nurse specialist/Clinical Nurse Manager etc position these are on a grade system 1-9 and it is the job not the person who dictates the grade. Within that grade there are 3 incremental steps.
This is for District Health Board positions and are set by the union collective agreement.
I hope this clarifies the wages situation.
Any further questions, please just ask,
Gill
Jun 29th 2011, 1:50 am
#8
---
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 2,994
Re: NZ wages for nurses
The only thing I wanted to add was to concur that where you are placed on the award scale is completely negotiable depending on a number of factors, only some of which will be within your control. So go in expecting to negotiate but don't take it personally if you get nowhere- and don't let $5k here or there dictate your location!
Jun 29th 2011, 7:16 am
#9
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Joined: Jun 2011
Location: from Liverpool but live in Hull
Posts: 57
Re: NZ wages for nurses
great response alanmac, but next time could you use larger font as I am so over the hill that my eyes struggle to see....
UOTE=alanmacc;9463513]I full yunderstand what you are saying by not comapring like for like and I agree that $55k wont get you as far here as £55 would in the UK, I was not intending to offer a lesson in economics but if you want to do a direct comaprison on wages the ave nurse wage in the uk is around range from £13,903 for Band 1 point 1 to £97,478 for Band 9 Point 54 and given that most nurses who decide to move here would be in Band 6 with an average of £28k if you compare that to $NZ at todays exchange rate it gives you $55,506 therefore the drop in salary is actually negligible.
We used to compare what we could get back over there with what we pay here but decided quickly that you were not getting a true comaprison as we live in very diferent economies with a population base far less. UK has around 60m people where as NZ has 4m so you cant really expect teh same infrastructure in both contries to match.
Yes you acn do a comparison in shopping prices but then you need to take into account the amount of goods we import here and all associated costs involded in bringing goods into NZ, for example if you take a 40' container regardless of how full it is from the UK to NZ charges will be around the $4k mark which you need to incorporate into the nett cost of goods to give a true landed value and ensure you contiunue to make profit as a business .......................
Hold on what am i doing im not here to tell people how to budget their money ......... right somebody slap me and tell me to shut up[/QUOTE]
UOTE=alanmacc;9463513]I full yunderstand what you are saying by not comapring like for like and I agree that $55k wont get you as far here as £55 would in the UK, I was not intending to offer a lesson in economics but if you want to do a direct comaprison on wages the ave nurse wage in the uk is around range from £13,903 for Band 1 point 1 to £97,478 for Band 9 Point 54 and given that most nurses who decide to move here would be in Band 6 with an average of £28k if you compare that to $NZ at todays exchange rate it gives you $55,506 therefore the drop in salary is actually negligible.
We used to compare what we could get back over there with what we pay here but decided quickly that you were not getting a true comaprison as we live in very diferent economies with a population base far less. UK has around 60m people where as NZ has 4m so you cant really expect teh same infrastructure in both contries to match.
Yes you acn do a comparison in shopping prices but then you need to take into account the amount of goods we import here and all associated costs involded in bringing goods into NZ, for example if you take a 40' container regardless of how full it is from the UK to NZ charges will be around the $4k mark which you need to incorporate into the nett cost of goods to give a true landed value and ensure you contiunue to make profit as a business .......................
Hold on what am i doing
im not here to tell people how to budget their money ......... right somebody slap me and tell me to shut up[/QUOTE]
