Pay raises- NZ culture?

[BkyMonster]

What is the NZ convention around raises? Are cost of living raises something that happens? To get a pay raise if you've gone from, say, graduate to intermediate level, or intermediate to senior level, do you basically have to job hop?
Mainly interested in IT type jobs, but any experiences welcome.

[Tia Maria]

My OH works in IT and although he has received pay raises while in the same company they haven't been much. He's had to change jobs a couple of times to get any decent kind of raise.

Cheers

Tia

[Familyofmonkeys]

My OH also works in IT. He gets a reasonable cost of living pay rise each year, and anything over and above that each year requires him to exceed expectations in his performance review for that year. But other than that you would need to move to a new role or level of seniority to get a larger payrise.

[cappuccino]

I have also had to change jobs to get a pay rise. Most places (esp public sector) use Performance Reviews here and as FoM said above, you generally have to exceed your targets to get anything and in this current economic climate, very few people do more than 'meet' their targets so therefore no pay rise.

[Kiwi Mac]

Never had one to be honest - we did not even get COL when I worked for DIA.

I have found though that unlike the UK they seem to like people who stay in their jobs for ages - we actually celebrated people being in post for 25 years when I was at the DIA, despite it being obvious that the people in question would not have been able to survive elsewhere!

I see longevity as a flaw - if someone has not moved enough, it makes me ask why.

Best pay rates are in contracting. I know of people who have been getting $75-$100 per hour + GST, 8 hours a day for 5 days a week for 12 month contracts!

[Clappy]

Best pay rates are in contracting. I know of people who have been getting $75-$100 per hour + GST, 8 hours a day for 5 days a week for 12 month contracts!

You do realise that they don't get to keep the GST don't you? eyes:

They are just working as unpaid tax collectors for the government.

[VileTraveller]

I see longevity as a flaw - if someone has not moved enough, it makes me ask why.

I tend to agree - it's rare that a job is so great that you get the best people staying in it for decades. Most "lifers" that I've come across seem to be people who have stayed at the old firm long enough for their salary to creep up well above their actual ability, and they would never make it in a new job. It's a sad fact of life that one of the least appreciated things in the world is the skills of your workforce. Moving around seems to be the only way to really keep up.

[Super_BQ]

It's not about NZ's obsession about pay raise. It's the problem that inflation in NZ is exceptionally higher than most other developed nations around the world. There really isn't a large % of working class people that are well off or how we say, can easily life comfortably in a comparable occupation overseas.

[VileTraveller]

I expect the problem is simply one of NZs small population and its isolation. I remember Eire having the same high costs, high inflation, low wages before it joined the Euro.

[petri]

It's the problem that inflation in NZ is exceptionally higher than most other developed nations around the world.

Are you sure?

http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/keygraphs/fig1.html vs. eg. http://www.indexmundi.com/germany/in...r_prices).html
vs. eg.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Econ...spx?symbol=GBP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...inflation_rate

I think the point where people are actually earning more than their skills happens everywhere.