gags

Hi. I am new to this site and my husband has been offered a Quantity Surveyors position in Palmerston North. We don't know anything about Palmerston North but we are AMAZED at the low wages in general for New Zealand (and we have been told that this salary offered is good) and cannot believe how anyone can afford to live in New Zealand at all. Don't get me wrong, we live comfortably here in England but not in the lap of luxury, with expensive clothes and lots of holidays a year. I food and cloth shop wisely and am not adverse to second hand stuff, but even so. Please help me understand.....!

sr71

Some figures might help, as well as locations.

Also where are you looking at salaries?


I'm in IT and so much depends on the person themselves, as well as their location.

Some people are happy earning £22,000 working in a local council in the North of England and would be happy to come to NZ and earn $70,000 for the same role. However the same role might be paying £45,000 in the South of England and that person would obviously take a drop in coming to NZ.

What I'm trying to say is that I think in many cases wages are overinflated in the South (London especially) and that if you are comparing them to NZ you probably will be disappointed.

My brother and his wife probably earn around $70,000pa and they manage OK. In fact if the truth is known they have a better lifestyle than I did in the UK earning 3-4x that.

Genesis

Hi I live in Palmy. What has your husband been offered? Its a great place to live..if people actually took the bother to stay more than 12 hours!! Been here 3.5 years and can see us being here for the next 20..atleast until the kids are done. What eqity will you be bringing. I can advise on areas etc.

Dom.

theduke

Hey, I am a Commercial Manager with a large contractor in Auckland, I came here 3yrs ago nearly, my initial job was as a Snr QS with a great little family business, however if you are good at your job someone from one of the big 4 will come and headhunt you after about a year, which is when you can name your price practically within reason, be very careful who the job is with, as the market has taken a huge downturn here and many companies are struggling.

PM me if you want to know any facts and figures, the country does need some more decent QS's there is always Auckland you know!!!!!

Good Luck!

Andy

Charlie Paynter

Hi Gags. I too am a QS (although I have since retrained), and lived in Auckland for some 3 years but returned to the UK 7 years ago. The reason why we came back was although I had a brilliant job running the NZ arm of an Aussie design and PM company, it was very difficult to make yourself financially secure for such times as in woe or old age. Apart from that, we absolutely loved our time in NZ and found it a hard decision to make in respect of returning, but eventually we had to acknowledge that unfortunately, money does make a huge difference where ever you are.

There is no way I am putting you off, and I know Parmy very well, still having friends who live in Fielding. But do your research first. If you are prepared to do without many of the luxuries you enjoy in the UK, will not overly miss F&F and go with a positive attitude of NZ (rather than be a whingeing Pom the moment you step foot on Kiwi soli!), you would already have made great strides towards settling.

NZ wages are low (compared to the cost of things - and do not let anyone convince you otherwise), and QS's are no different. Your hubby will find himself working longer hours as well. You will also find that as theduke has said, the market has taken a huge downturn so it will be a buyers market, but I also went in a downturn (1999), and found myself being offered 3 jobs within weeks of arriving in Auckland, but again take note of theduke, as my first job was with Hartners (), who was at the time, in the top 5 of the largest construction companies in NZ, and they went bust in 2000!!

Happy deliberations.

gags

Hi. Many thanks for your reply. Yes I do agree that the south of England does pay more but it is also an expensive place to live, so I suppose it is all relative. New Zealand appeals to us because we could make it a more rural lifestyle which is what I crave! Yes we would have equity to bring and that would help, but even taking out our HUGE mortgage here in the South East of England our figures don't seem to stack up for New Zealand. My husband has been offered $95000. We have 3 children 14, 12, and 4. What are we doing wrong? We have honestly looked and looked at the figures and we are not being greedy at it either.

gags

Hi Dom, many thanks for the reply. My husband has been offered $95,000.
Yes ofcourse it is less than here in the South East but we did expect that just not as low. Many things I have been told are of the same price as here in England, eg food and clothes.

BEVS

Putting up your figures will help. Without that , it will be difficult for anyone to gauge.

sr71

There is a salary survey here : ($75,000 - $120,000 in Auckland)

http://www.hays-hps.co.nz/salary/default.aspx

Charlie Paynter

A move to a more rural location in the UK would surely be a better and less expensive option?

Genesis

$95k is almost 3 x the median salary..in NZ thats BIG $. Saw a heli pilots job a couple a years ago..$75k!!!!!

We earned about $80k last year all in ....will you have a mortgage to pay??

I think the cost of living is cheaper than in the UK.

sr71

Not sure what the median salary is, but the minimum wage is about $25K. Most unskilled positions would get you $35-$40K with a couple of years experience. (Receptionists, Data entry etc)

I think the problem is that in NZ professionals are not paid much more than than an unskilled wage. So you'll have a receptionist on $40K and then a scientist/engineer/accountant will be on $60-70K, whereas in the UK the difference might be £18K and £45K.

Could you contract as a quantity surveyor? That is often a way to increase income. In IT you would multiply the permanent salary by 1.5-2x and be able to structure you tax affairs more efficiently.

In any case I'm not sure about living costs, supermarket shopping is comparable in my experience. Eating out is a lot cheaper though.

theduke

We have found the cost of living all relative, I earn alot more $95K now but still struggle my wife earns about $40-50K, no mortgage, kids do every sport going etc etc, but if we need money we just need to use one or two months wages and that sorts things out for us.

Do a shop online at Tesco and then at Foodtown and convert that will give you a better idea.

I earned $100k when I came here and that was top wack as they willnot pay you more until you come and prove yourself, once you have it is great!

I am moving to Dubai in January for 2 years and will most definately be back here after that, without a doubt. Internal company move.

We returned to the UK, to check on our property and see family etc and we decided then that there is no way on we would ever consider moving back!

As for contracting/working freelance don't consider it, I have a friend who does it and has to work 80odd hours to get a decent salary, not worth it(in the UK I would say yes, not here)

One of the QS cadets who works for me has 4kids and earns about $50k, he is asian but bloody bright and very loyal. Other who earn double that, remember in Auckland also and they have kids and survive pretty well, very different to the way you will live in UK but much much better in my opinion.

DO NOT COME TO NZ THINKING YOU WILL MAKE A FORTUNE! You will make a living and it will be very very hard to adjust away from UK way of living. You will be surprised how much you waste in the UK and probably don't realise until you come here.

Opinion poles say that if you earn $100k you are in the top 5% earners in the country $150+ you are in the top 2%, me personally wonder how anyone under $100k exists but many many families do and have bachs and boats and flash cars and beautiful houses.

Anyway hope I never scared you off, we have just employed 2 new QS's from UK and they are getting $100k per year + bonuses + car and fuel, and they live in Auckland so $95k in Parmy must be well up there!!

Hope this helps!!

Kiwiprincess

I think the problem is that in NZ professionals are not paid much more than than an unskilled wage. So you'll have a receptionist on $40K and then a scientist/engineer/accountant will be on $60-70K, whereas in the UK the difference might be £18K and £45K.

I think there is quite a bit of truth in that actually. Without getting into the issue of uk salarys vs nz salaries too much, when I was involved with a temping agency in the UK (London, SW19) temps were typically getting offered around £7 to £9 for a reception job. This was in 2004 so i know costs have gone up before anyone comments

I did this for a very short time in NZ (i am not a receptionist so it was quite interesting/humbling finding out how little i knew about the job). The NZ job (Wellington) offered between $15 and $20 for a similar job. In fact, in one case it was incredibly similar - both in non-medical reception positions at hospitals (St George's, Tooting vs Wellington Hospital) and the salary went further in Wellington. Ok you could compare the fact that London is a wee bit more expensive than Wellington but still, overall for those kinds of jobs and in that area, it was not a lot. Incidentally, the same agency also sent people for waitressing jobs for approx £5 per hour (probably higher now cos i think the min wage is higher now). Those waitresses frequently had two jobs. I am not saying they would be well off here, but those i knew certainly had more money in NZ than the UK (we had a fair number of WHVers working there as a way to get £££ to carry them over whilst searching for their professional work. Never be rude to a kiwi waitress. She could be the solicitor representing the Crown next time you see her. Of course, the positives of London was what made many people stay.

However, that isn't the case with the higher end jobs. There is a huge difference.

Which was my rambly point.

Oh, I assume you aren't translating 95k back into pounds? Don't do that. Or at least, don't spend too much time doing that.