Big gap divides winners, losers in wage stakes

A tight labour market is accentuating the gap between pay rise winners and losers, a national wage and salary survey has found.

The Employers and Manufacturers Association survey shows electronics technicians received the biggest pay rises at 36.8 per cent, followed by staff and registered nurses at 19 per cent and shop assistants at 13 per cent.

At the other end of the scale were accounts clerks with an average drop of 11.4 per cent, followed by toolmakers down 0.9 per cent and road transport drivers down 0.7 per cent.

David Lowe, association manager of employment services, said the variations were more marked than in previous years.

"That really just reflects that there is a tight labour market out there and that the labour market is working well in that, where there is a shortage, we are certainly seeing the wages rising to deal with it."

The annual survey was drawn from 668 organisations nationwide who provided remuneration data on 35,165 employees in 213 different job types across 19 economic sectors.

The survey is run by the EMA Northern with EMA Central, Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce and the Otago-Southland Employers Association.

Lowe said the survey would tell employers if they were paying a fair rate to attract and retain staff.

"Some people want to attract the cream of the crop, other people are just happy to settle for the average worker ... and it gives them an indication of what they need to pay to be able to attract that sort of person."

Although some sectors showed significant rises, a third of those surveyed fell within the 3 per cent to 4 per cent increase range.

Lowe said pay packets of skilled staff were generally rising at a faster rate than those of their managers, but figures in one year should not be taken as the whole story.

"The huge increase for the technicians represents a correction from small increases last year and the year before. The same applies to nurses."

Last year's survey showed technicians received a 6.1 per cent rise but in 2003 they took a fall of 16.4 per cent.

Carol Beaumont, secretary of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, said the labour market had displayed a paradox of low wage rises at a time of growing employment coupled with a shortage of skills.

Wage increases were "an absolute imperative".