Which sectors pay more than a median $100,000 salary?

Infometrics says there is not much impetus for wage growth in the current environment. Photo / Getty Images

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ

It used to be that once someone’s salary hit six digits, they would be considered highly paid.

But there are now about a dozen sectors paying at least a median $100,000.

Over the past 10 years, the median wage across New Zealand has risen from about $67,000 – depending how you measure it – to nearly $80,000.

Infometrics principal economist Nick Brunsdon compiled LEED data from Stats NZ which showed the breakdown of mean and median income by industry.

It showed workers in mining, manufacturing, electricity and gas supply, rail, water, air and space transport, telecommunications, finance and insurance, computer system design, and hospitals all had median and mean incomes above $100,000.

The data reports on Pay As You Earn (PAYE) earners so will not capture self-employed people who do not pay PAYE, or anyone who is not in paid work.

Coal, oil, gas and metal ore mining was top, with a median income of $136,770 and a mean of $144,450.

Computer systems design and related services was second, with a median income of $125,630.

It was followed by exploration and other mining support services on a median $124,960 and auxiliary finance and insurance services on $124,390.

At the other end of the table was food and beverage services, with a median $40,170, and food retailing on a median $45,030.

“The big caveat is that it doesn’t include hours worked, and there will be differences in the prevalence of part-time workers across industries,” Brunsdon said.

He said it seemed overall that it was private sectors that were paying the highest salaries, with the exception of hospital staff. But he said hospital wages were likely to be being pulled up by highly paid surgeons and other specialists.

“Generally the private sector has greater ability to pay.”

He said qualifications were also a factor, although mining roles were not necessarily those requiring degrees.

He said manufacturing salaries could be being pushed up by shift work loadings that could bring people over the $100,000 salary level “quite easily”.

There had been a couple of years of quite aggressive minimum wage increases, he said. “That’s going to have an effect at the bottom end and it’s going to have that knock-on effect to anyone - or should have a knock-on effect to anyone - who’s near the minimum wage to maintain relativity.

“But I guess it depends on what’s going on. When you’ve got particular pressures in particular areas, that’s going to push up wages. A couple of years ago there was a lot of pressure in the public sector and professional services wages during that period. Not so much now.”

He said there was not much impetus for wage growth in the current environment.

“People are generally pretty grateful to keep the job they’ve got rather than push the boat out and try to get paid more... the job hopping that can push things up is not going on as well.”

He said the economy might be at a turning point for recovery but Infometrics was not expecting it to tick over into strong growth.

“It’s sort of expected to be a prolonged recovery, which means that it could be some years until we start to get that sort of heat back in the economy that contributes to strong wage growth.”

Top five

Coal, oil, gas and metal ore mining

Mean $144,450 median $136,770

Mining is the highest-paid sector in New Zealand.

A report in the middle of this year said that 7470 people were employed in the sector.

Computer systems design and related services

Mean $128,690, median $125,630

These sorts of roles are often among the most highly paid in things like Trade Me’s reports of advertised salaries.

They include things like planning, integrating and managing computer hardware and software, as well as communication technologies.

Exploration and other mining support services

Mean $129,940, median $124,960

That same mining report said the biggest job creation and economic impact was in Buller, Hauraki and Waitaki.

Earlier in the year, RNZ reported that forest and mining roles had the second-biggest pay increases last year at 6.2%.

Auxiliary finance and insurance services

Mean $134,480, median $124,390

This category captures people whose work is related to financial transactions and insurance but who work in businesses that don’t own the financial assets themselves.

Finance

Mean $126,220, median $122,020

General finance jobs were also paying well.

Last year, Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan looked at data back to 1989 and found the ratio of industry wage compared to the average wage had increased 35% for financial and insurance services over that time, and 15.8% for electric, gas, water and waste services.