While financiers and computer experts may have enjoyed higher pay in the past, Australia’s miners, tradies and construction workers are now overtaking the white-collared workers in income.
All of which poses more problems for Kiwi trucking and construction companies, already struggling to hold diesel staff in competition from Australia.
According to a report released recently, blue-collar workers earn an average A$1229 a week – a record $144 more than those working behind a desk.
Suncorp Bank executive manager Tony Meredith, who commissioned the report, says the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ findings debunk the common belief that a university degree was needed to make a big income in the workforce.
“When I left school everyone knew you had to go to university to get a good income,” Meredith says.
“Now the fancy house could just as easily belong to the guy wearing a fluoro vest and holding a stop sign.”
Mining and utilities topped the wage list due to the resources boom, with some workers earning more than A$2200 a week – double the average pay of 15 years ago.
But Dave Noonan of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, says the figure for the construction industry was likely to be much higher.
“A lot of the jobs these highly skilled guys do are in remote locations in extreme conditions,” he says.
“Most of these workers are doing 10 or 12-hour days, six or seven days a week. If someone’s going to work in an industry like this, it’s certainly not for the lifestyle.”
