Latest / Best of Business / Heath Milne: Development West Coast CEO on the new data showing the West Coast has higher than average advertised salaries

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Heath Milne: Development West Coast CEO on the new data showing the West Coast has higher than average advertised salaries · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
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• 0:17
  Speaker 2: One of the country's smallest regions is still the highest
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  Speaker 2: paid in this country. There's new data out that shows
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  Speaker 2: that the West Coast has the highest averaged advertised salary
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  Speaker 2: in the country for the last six months. The average
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  Speaker 2: West Coaster now earns $ 78, 000 a year. Nationally, it's just
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  Speaker 2: $ 74, 000 a year. Heath Milne is the CEO of Development
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  Speaker 2: West Coast and with us. Hi, Heath.
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  Speaker 1: Hello, Heather.
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  Speaker 2: Nearly a third of the advertised jobs are over $ 100, 000.
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  Speaker 2: What is going on with you people?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, it's two things, I think. We have got
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  Speaker 3: a shortage of skilled workers, so we're trying to meet
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  Speaker 3: that or fill that gap by attracting people here.
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  Speaker 1: And I think.
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  Speaker 3: In some cases, the advertised salaries for the same role
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  Speaker 3: would be higher on the West Coast than they are
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  Speaker 3: in other parts of the country, which you combine that
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  Speaker 3: with cheap housing, it's becoming more and more attractive for people.
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  Speaker 3: And I think the other thing is that we are
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  Speaker 3: in the early stages still of a bit of a
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  Speaker 3: comeback in the mineral sector, and a lot of companies
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  Speaker 3: are gearing up for that by hiring these skilled people uh,
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  Speaker 3: engineers and what have you that, that attract these high,
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  Speaker 3: high salaries.
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  Speaker 2: How much higher are the salaries? Like if you had
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  Speaker 2: the same job comparably in Auckland and then in the
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  Speaker 2: West Coast, how much, how much more are you people paying?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I think if it was Auckland, we probably would
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  Speaker 3: probably not be higher. Um, and there's no stats that, that, uh,
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  Speaker 3: that I can, uh, quote that, that say what the
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  Speaker 3: same role will be, uh, paid on the West Coast
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  Speaker 3: compared to other parts of the country. But we do
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  Speaker 3: know that to attract people, uh, one of the levers
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  Speaker 3: that businesses are pulling is to offer higher salaries, and
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  Speaker 3: we're seeing that come through in this seek data.
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  Speaker 2: Does the mining sector pay more than your average sector?
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  Speaker 3: I think in most cases it does, and that's around
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  Speaker 3: the type of skills that they require. So they are engineers,
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  Speaker 3: machinery operators, which is highly skilled roles as well, You know,
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  Speaker 3: environmental scientists, they're all pretty well qualified. And so, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: they do certainly pay a higher salary on average than
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  Speaker 3: a lot of other industries. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So as you say, you know, reasonably higher pay packets,
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  Speaker 2: but also lower cost of living because the houses are
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  Speaker 2: cheaper and so on. So are you getting a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people moving in for this lifestyle?
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  Speaker 3: We actually are, and that's probably happened even since COVID times.
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  Speaker 3: We saw an influx of people taking advantage not only
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  Speaker 3: of the cost of living here on the coast compared
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  Speaker 3: with other parts of the country, but just the lifestyle.
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  Speaker 3: You don't have the traffic issues. You've got the beautiful
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  Speaker 3: nature around us that we all enjoy. So, yeah, we
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  Speaker 3: are seeing a lot of people to stop making that call,
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  Speaker 3: particularly with young families too, which is quite good.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, good stuff. I'm pleased to hear it. Look after yourself.
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  Speaker 2: Heath Mill, Development West Coast CEO. So there you go.
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  Speaker 2: If you're one of those people going, nah, I don't
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  Speaker 2: want any mining, well, look at how much it pays.
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  Speaker 2: It's doing okay for West Coast, isn't it?
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