[greenchilli]

Hi all,
I have have just received my Subject to Confirmation teaching registration so I am good to go when we arrive in Feb, however I am starting to panic about supporting the family (2 boys). OH is already working in Auckland but not on a fantastic salary. I have looked at the collective agreement but can't seem to make any sense of that! I am about to progress onto UPS 2 in the UK so am fairly high up the payscale for a standard primary teacher. What is worrying me is the girl from the agency said I would be on $42,000:eek: with my experience and now I'm thinking OMG we can't afford it and hubby is already there I've sold half my furniture and just about to put my ITA in. Stress !!! I know salaries are not the same but am having serious second thoughts as can't making the move if we can afford to rent and eat and nothing else. Don't want reality to end our Nz dream but can't see how we can survive on roughly $90,000. Would appreciate your thoughts views and experiences and this post is not about being materialistic that is what we are trying to escape from but don't want to get into financial difficulties over there !
Sorry I have ranted on- got time to panic as it's the weekend !
Cheers

[lockstock]

Sorry but don't expect a teacher's salary to be anything like $90K. Top of the basic scale for a secondary teacher is roughly $67k. Look up teacher's salaries on the PPTA or NZEI websites and use your NZQA assessment level as a guide. It's very complicated when you first look but read the key and it should give you an idea.

[IanW99]

Well if it helps, if you earn NZ$42000 then your take home pay should be NZ$33270 and if your OH earns NZ$48000 then their take home would be NZ$37290 so this would give you a total income of NZ$70560 or NZ$1357 per week after tax (doesn't include any kiwi saver deductions).

So you should be able to use a cost of living calculator to work out whether this is enough for you.

Ian

[napiers]

Hi all,
I have have just received my Subject to Confirmation teaching registration so I am good to go when we arrive in Feb, however I am starting to panic about supporting the family (2 boys). OH is already working in Auckland but not on a fantastic salary. I have looked at the collective agreement but can't seem to make any sense of that! I am about to progress onto UPS 2 in the UK so am fairly high up the payscale for a standard primary teacher. What is worrying me is the girl from the agency said I would be on $42,000:eek: with my experience and now I'm thinking OMG we can't afford it and hubby is already there I've sold half my furniture and just about to put my ITA in. Stress !!! I know salaries are not the same but am having serious second thoughts as can't making the move if we can afford to rent and eat and nothing else. Don't want reality to end our Nz dream but can't see how we can survive on roughly $90,000. Would appreciate your thoughts views and experiences and this post is not about being materialistic that is what we are trying to escape from but don't want to get into financial difficulties over there !
Sorry I have ranted on- got time to panic as it's the weekend !
Cheers

Hi greenchilli - I can't help at all but spookily enough I'm in practically the same situation as you. I'm STC on NZ register and am about to give my application/letter to progress to UPS2 to the head! (Hopefully it'll be fine and will be backdated to September!!) We won't be in Auckland until next August-ish time but it is going to happen. I haven't yet investigated salaries in any detail (I need to I think) but please keep this thread updated and if I come across any info then I'll let you know. Good luck.

[greenchilli]

Sorry I know I won't earn 90,000 I meant joint income as hubby is already working

[Spooky]

Yikes, now you got me panicking too. I was trying to make sense of the collective agreements, but they don't quite say how much you'll get for number of years experience, only for your level of qualification. I wonder if 55-60 is reasonable to expect for a secondary level teacher with 10 years in the classroom. :wah. If not I'll have to make a big pot of curry and sell it during recess time!

[greenchilli]

Yes looks like it's going to be tight if I start at the bottom so hopefully will be assessed higher as I have 13 years experience, I know it will be worth it though just having a cold feet moment !

[thewoodies]

Sorry but don't expect a teacher's salary to be anything like $90K. Top of the basic scale for a secondary teacher is roughly $67k. Look up teacher's salaries on the PPTA or NZEI websites and use your NZQA assessment level as a guide. It's very complicated when you first look but read the key and it should give you an idea.

I am being really thick but i cant find actual salaries on either site?

[willsken]

Don't panic! You won't be on $42,000. I noticed someone has 10 years experience and if that's the case then I can't see any reason why you won't go straight to the top of the scale. I had 6 years experience and I did. It's about $65,000 ish a year. They matched my experience year for year on the pay scale.


Pay scales

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0705/PPTAsalaries.pdf

I'm pretty sure if you are qualified you count your years experience starting at step 7.

[kanatakiwi]

I think many people on this forum would telll you they are managing all right on less than $90,000 a year. I know we are. It may take some adjustment on lifestyle choices, but the best things to do here are outdoors and free. I find food in supermarkets and eating out here atrociously expensive (coming from canada) but most people from UK think its quite reasonable, so you might find things are not so expensive here by comparison.

[greenchilli]

Thanks for that, starting to feel more confident now your info sounds very positive !

[YouMeAndThree]

OH is the only earner in this household - we have somewhere around the $70K mark before tax for a family of 5. We've had quite a bit of initial outlay, but so far we are coping, although we don't have an extravagant life by any means! As mentioned above, prices are fairly similar to the UK IMHO, so hopefully you can work out for yourselves what you salary will cover. Also, from reading this forum, I gather that 2 salaries amounting to $90k will be better tax wise than 1 salary of $90k, so our salary of $70k makes us worse off than if we both earned $35k (think that's right).

However, I should point out that OH is in receipt of a small monthly pension in the UK and we have a small income from our rental property over there, so we do have a 'pot' to dip into (although it's been dipped into quite a lot over the last couple of months!) Over the coming months we are going to try and survive without it as we no longer have any more set-up costs that we can see. We think it is very do-able on the $70k at the moment.

[willsken]

I think living on $70k is very liveable as well. Obviously this depends greatly on how much mortgage/rent you will spend though. I earn about $75k and OH is starting up a business and most of what he earns at the moment is poured straight back in. 1/2 my income goes on the mortgage and while things can be very tight at times and I have to get money from him, day to day we don't do too badly.

[greenchilli]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences on this topic I've found it very useful :nice1

[canajanz]

70 - 90k ?!! Well at least those people wont have any worries when they get here! That kind of salary will allow you to go hunting for whatever your heart desires.
Worrying about how to make ends meet on 2.6 times the average salary seems ... like catstrophising?

[canajanz]

However, I should point out that OH is in receipt of a small monthly pension in the UK and we have a small income from our rental property over there, so...


So that will raise your income to the desired 90k level in the eyes of IRD?
Overseas income must be declared ... but I am not quite sure how they work out how to tax you.

[IanW99]

70 - 90k ?!! Well at least those people wont have any worries when they get here! That kind of salary will allow you to go hunting for whatever your heart desires.
Worrying about how to make ends meet on 2.6 times the average salary seems ... like catstrophising?

I'm not convinced on your maths, or even your conclusions.

Firstly, the 70-90K is the combined wages of two workers and you are comparing this with a family with a single wage earner. Even if the average wage is NZ$34K then this would be NZ$68K for two (which is more likely than just having a single wage earner) - so their wages would barely be above average.

Secondly, the average wage of a skilled worker is NZ$55K so if they are both skilled workers then they would actually be below average.

The average wages quoted are for NZ as a whole where clearly it costs a lot more to live in Auckland or Wellington than it does in many other parts of the country.

So, although you may be right and they have no worries, I don't think it would be right to say that they can get what their heart desires.

One final point, there have been forum members who were earning this amount of money, but found it too difficult to make ends meet in NZ, in fact if you search for a poll on the subject you will be suprised at the results.

Ian

[willsken]

70 - 90k ?!! Well at least those people wont have any worries when they get here! That kind of salary will allow you to go hunting for whatever your heart desires.
Worrying about how to make ends meet on 2.6 times the average salary seems ... like catstrophising?

With a mortgage to pay there is no way we are on easy street on $75,000. We live well enough but I certainly have to think before I spend on big items. I have 2 teenagers as well and they aren't exactly cheap to keep.

[castleclan]

There are so many factors that vary from size of family to size of mortgage etc. You just can't generalise but hope to make sense of it all by collecting as much info as possible.

[kanatakiwi]

So that will raise your income to the desired 90k level in the eyes of IRD?
Overseas income must be declared ... but I am not quite sure how they work out how to tax you.

As youme three just arrived in NZ, they will have a four year tax holiday to determine what to do about their rental money, before they get taxed on it.

[welshman213]

Quick question,

My OH is a teacher, and when we get over will have 4 years experience but will also hold a Masters.

Does anyone have a rough idea where that will put here on the pay scale?

Many thanks

John

[welshman213]

Sorry to ask again, but does anyone have any ideas on this?

Thank

John

[willsken]

Sorry to ask again, but does anyone have any ideas on this?

Thank

John

We in NZ are only just waking up! ;)

A qualified teacher will start on point 7, so add 4 years and on the scale they should be on point 10/11. The scale is in the link

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0705/PPTAsalaries.pdf

Not sure if having a masters makes a difference or not I'm afraid.

[welshman213]

Thansk Willsken,

Completely forgot about the time difference, suppose being in the UK we believe everthing revolves around us :laugh

Will have to check out about the masters though as we went to the London Expo the other day and we advised (rightly or wrongly) it makes a difference.

Other wise the expense of doing it for te extra 5 points seems to negate itself.

Thanks again.

John

[welshman213]

I think, to answer my own question. With a masters/phd it seems you are G5E + experience which starts at level 9.

Details in this very handy pdf.
http://www.ppta.org.nz/index.php/collectiveagreements/doc_download/70-secondary-teachers-collective-agreement-stca-2007-2010

John

[eve]

Hi,
I don't want to put you off, but things are not cheap here. We are trying to survive on 50k and that is impossible for a family. My OH is a teacher and is finding it very difficult to get a job - not even getting interviews despite years of experience etc.
Be prepared for the stress and worry of being skint!
On the positive, if you can earn 90k that should be enough to get by on.
Good luck, Eve