NZ academics paid well but Aussies paid better

New Zealand university staff are among the best-paid in the Commonwealth, but lag well behind their Australian counterparts.

New Zealand academics are paid better than their colleagues in Canada, Britain, South Africa and Malaysia at all salary levels, once "purchasing power" is taken into account, a survey by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) has found.

But they are well behind their colleagues in Australia. A New Zealand professor at the bottom of the scale earns almost US$20,000 ($35,000) less than an Australian counterpart. Academics in Singapore are also far better paid than in New Zealand, but only one Singaporean university took part in the survey.

The results were published on the ACU website and included two sets of recently revised figures, based on different "purchasing-power" calculations.

New Zealand Vice-Chancellors Committee executive director Lindsay Taiaroa said although New Zealand academics seemed to be on par or better paid than those in most Commonwealth countries, relativity to Australia was important because it was the closest neighbour.

"It means if you have good staff, they are always going to have the opportunity to move to Australia, which is not hard to do," he said.

The vice-chancellors and university staff unions are preparing to begin negotiations on collective agreements after the Association of University Staff (AUS) voted to seek a national collective agreement.

Mr Taiaroa said he expected the AUS approach to relativity and retention would be to substantially lift the pay of all New Zealand academics, but this would be costly.

"The other way to do it is to single out and reward high performance," he said.

The AUS vigorously expressed concerns last year about the relative state of salaries, and the effect on retention of recruitment of top academics. The conflict prompted University of Otago staff to go on strike for the first time in the institution's history.

AUS national industrial officer Jeff Rowe could not be contacted for comment, but the union has indicated international relativity will be a consideration during this year's negotiations.

The survey found a New Zealand lecturer earned the equivalent of US$33,603, once purchasing power was taken into account.

By comparison, lecturers in Australia earn US$44,198, in Canada US$28,949, South Africa US$31,277, Britain US$24,955 and Malaysia US$14,926.

- NZPA


The learning curve

How New Zealand lecturers compare with their contemporaries in US dollars.

Australia $44,198

New Zealand $33,603

South Africa $31,277

Canada $28,949

Britain $24,955

Malaysia $14,926