Charlotte Evett: Chartered Accountants General Manager on the pay disparity between New Zealand and Australia

New data has revealed the pay of chartered accountants in New Zealand lags behind that in Australia. 

A survey by Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand has found members across the ditch took home a median NZ$177,000 compared to NZ$144,200 in New Zealand. 

Chief financial officers were being paid around $336,000 to New Zealand's $265,000. 

But Chartered Accountants' Charlotte Evett told Mike Hosking she's not surprised. 

She says they've always seen higher salaries in Australia than New Zealand, and the big gap in economic performance has been there since the 70s. 

However, there are reasons for accountants to stay in the country. 

Evett says a third of Australian accountants felt they were unfairly paid compared to 20% in New Zealand, and New Zealand can also be more affordable to live in. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The reminder and part is to why so many people

(00:01):
are leaving New Zealand for not only the heat of
Australia but the pay packets. We've got a survey of accountants,
eight thousand of them across Australasia. Turns out paywise, there's
a big gap. Chartered Accounts Australia, New Zealand General Manager
Charlotte Everitt's with us on this, Charlotte Morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Morning Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
This charted accountants are all accountants.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is chartered accountants, so that's own members. We have
almost one hundred and forty thousand members across Australia and
New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
What sort of gap are we talking about? Dollars wise?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
You know, the gap is significant if you're looking at
some of those bigger roles, so chief chief executives CFOs
and general managers so CFOs for example, and this as
we looked at the median so everyone knows a CFO
paid higher than this. But in Australia they'll get about
three hundred and five thousand, whereas in New Zealand you're

(00:55):
looking more at two hundred and sixty five thousands. But
you know, equally there are plenty of roles in New
Zealand that pay pretty similar to those in Australia. More
junior accountants get very similar pays.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
So have we got a problem here or not? Because
if you say two sixty five to three oh five,
yes it's a gap, but the cost of living in
Sydney is way more than that as compared to with
say living in Auckland, So in other words, you're not
necessarily ahead at all.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
I mean. Also, I think I was reading something this morning,
I think on interest dot co dot can said that
it said Australians are a lot more dissatisfied than us
with the affordability of housing. So you know, we think
we've got it bad here, they have it worse there.
You try to buy a house in Sydney, it's pretty pricey.
But look, I think over the lifetime of our survey,

(01:41):
we've always seen higher salaries in Australia than in New Zealand,
so this isn't something new at all. And economic performance
here there's been a big gap since way back in
the seventies in.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Your age, sorry, in your experience, is retention here an
issue because of pay or not?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well? I mean everyone also, like everyone knows someone that's
moving to Australia, but there are also plenty of people
that are happy to stay here in New Zealand. We've
got a lot to offer, as you know, like you said, affordability.
But also Passervey showed that a lot despite a being
a bit more in Australia, over all New Zealand is
feel more fairly paid. So over a quarter of Australians

(02:23):
thought that they were unfairly paid, but in New Zealand
that was only twenty percent. Okay, so I don't think
but yeah, we do have a problem. I've bought a
problem and that there are people leaving, but there's still
a lot of people that come back home as well.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Good stuff. Nice to talk to you, Charlotte. Charlotte Ebbitt,
who's chartered accountants A and Z or Australia and New
Zealand general manager, talking to my daughter in Melbourne last
I can't sleep, which you can't sleep too, damn hotspan
thirty nine degrees all week in Melbourne. You can't sleep.
Who wants to go to Australia? You get no sleep?
For more from the Mike Asking Breakfast listen live to
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(02:56):
the podcast on iHeartRadio.