KEY POINTS:
Emmet Hobbs, non-executive director of five companies
Emmet Hobbs, a former director of freight for Qantas and Australian Airlines, and executive director for Brambles in Australia and Europe, now sits on five main boards as a non-executive director, and earns between $35,000-$70,000 per board.
After retiring, Hobbs received many requests to act as a director: he is currently on the boards of Mainfreight Ltd, Ports of Auckland Ltd, and Rakino Ltd, which owns Hirepool, New Zealand's largest hire company, along with two others.
His responsibilities include looking after the interests of the shareholders of each organisation, the health and safety of the workers, the environmental standards of the organisation, and the financial viability of the company.
"People are going to get the wrong impression if you said this man earns X amount of dollars each year - it's to do with the 45 years [in business] that I have put in prior to that, that people are prepared to buy... I want to actually spread my experience so that I can continue to learn, and so others can get the benefit of some of my experience."
Hobbs said the risks a director bears are the most important part of the consideration. "[As a director] you have to actually lug yourself around the business and physically see it to actually understand it. And if you don't, then you haven't learned about the business, because the people who work on the frontline know most of it. The tragedy is that they get paid relatively less..."
Jack Blumgart, Tesla Electrical electrician
It has been seven years since South African electrician Jack Blumgart arrived in New Zealand, and in that time he has seen electricians' pay rise by only around $6-$7 an hour.
While he is now self-employed and can set his own hourly rates, Blumgart said a workshop foreman in an electrical firm might earn only $26 an hour - around $54,000 a year for a 40-hour week.
" I can assure you the cost of living has well surpassed our hourly rate."
Electricians are on the Immigration Service's long-term skill shortage list, yet pay rates are not enough to attract more workers.
Blumgart said police, teachers and nurses deserved higher pay rates, rather than company directors.
