5 Jan 2013

Salaries up, says online job search company

1:41 pm on 5 January 2013

Employment search company Seek says the average salary for jobs advertised on its website jumped by 5% last year to about $74,500.

That is about $18,000 more than the average annual wage nationwide.

The data released by Seek shows the highest salaries advertised in November last year came from Taranaki employers, who offered an average of $93,317, which was 26.3% higher than in January 2012.

Wellington, the West Coast, Auckland and Canterbury also commanded advertised salaries of more than $70,000 on average.

But the latest figures from Statistics New Zealand show the average wage nationwide is about $56,700.

Council of Trade Unions secretary Peter Conway says Seek's higher figure is probably due to the fact that it caters to a more professional market.

"The Labour Cost Index, which is the most reliable survey, shows that wages rose 1.9 percent in the September 2012 year, so again, that figure is quite a lot lower than the five percent or so increase in the Seek survey."

Mr Conway says the figures prove why there is a growing gap between the rich and poor.