4 ms·

The majority, perhaps even super-majority of the people I work with are immigrants. It's not a problem. The problem is that New Zealand employers are absolutely

The majority, perhaps even super-majority of the people I work with are immigrants. It's not a problem. The problem is that New Zealand employers are absolutely allergic to paying their staff; they are cruising on the idea that "New Zealand is a great place to live, it doesn't matter if you're paid less, the lifestyle benefits make up for it".

klipt 3y ago
I assume manny immigrants work just long enough to get a NZ passport then use the freedom of movement granted to work in Australia? Then once they get an Australian passport, they can use it to work in the US on an E-3 visa :-)
- 0xADEADBEE 3y ago
  You don’t even need to do that. Once you have Residency (distinct from Permanent Residency and Citizenship - the one with the passport) you are allowed to start your own company which you can use to contract yourself out to Australian companies for annual amounts double those of a lot of NZ roles. (My last role paid 240-250K NZD depending on exchange rate; the local role prior to that: 120K NZD) Didn’t know about E3 visa route. Very interesting, thank you
- TMWNN 3y ago
  I've heard that South Africans who can't make it to Australia directly use NZ as the stopover until, as you said, they can use the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement to move to Australia. I wouldn't be surprised if their (and others') ultimate goal is the US. That's the case with Canada, where my understanding is that FAANG offices are staffed mostly with those who cannot (and often will never get) a US visa, plus the odd local who doesn't want to move to the US for personal or family reasons.
FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>The problem is that New Zealand employers are absolutely allergic to paying their staff; they are cruising on the idea that "New Zealand is a great place to live, it doesn't matter if you're paid less, the lifestyle benefits make up for it". It's exactly the same in Austria (the one with schnitzel, not kangaroos). Employers will tell you, "you don't need more than 60k/year because the quality of life is so good, you know we keep winning most livable city in the world", to the point where I think the whole winning most livable city in the world is some paid BS advertising from Austria to sucker in foreigners willing to lowball themselves and fill in the so called "skill shortage", up until they move here and realize a house costs 1 million Euros, stuff is more expensive than in Germany while salaries are lower and then they fuck off.
- depereo 3y ago
  There are places in NZ (Nelson for example) that semi-formalize this as the 'sunshine dividend' making up the balance of payment compared to other towns or cities. i.e suggesting because a place has nice weather that you should be paid less.
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    There is a strong correlation that I noticed in Europe as well between a place begin nice to live with nice weather which tend to have lower pay while depressing places with shit weather having higher pay. Basically the nice cities with nice weather attract a lot of candidates meaning employers don't need to pay so much, while employers in cloudy, windy, rainy and depressing cities need to pay good because otherwise there's no reason to move there. It's just supply and demand. I could get a nice pay bump by moving to Netherlands or the UK, but I really can't stomach the weather in that part of Europe, as someone who like going outside for walks in the sun. Sometimes there's more to life than counting more money, and life is too short to spend it living somewhere where you don't like just to accumulate money.
    - techsupporter 3y ago
      > I could get a nice pay bump by moving to Netherlands or the UK, but I really can't stomach the weather in that part of Europe, as someone who like going outside for walks in the sun. Sometimes there's more to life than counting more money Weather is one of those intensely personal things. I am very much outside of the norm, especially when it comes to sun. I've lived in Seattle my whole life and right now it is in the mid-80s and not a cloud in the sky; the whole week is predicted to be like this. The people I know have filtered, as they do every year, into two groups. One group is posting on social media about how they're out to "enjoy the sun" and "such marvelous weather". The other, like me, is sitting inside waiting for the grey to return. (Anecdotally to my friend group, people who move here tend to be in the first group; people who were born around here in the second.) Which is to say, I would happily take a pay cut to get away from the sun so I suppose I'm glad the "gloomier" places tend to pay more.
verve_rat 3y ago
Yup. NZ employers claim there is a labour shortage, but in almost all cases I think NZ has a serious lack of business management skills. Basic ideas like staff retention and margins seem to be completely foreign to a bunch of "business leaders".

klipt 3y ago

I assume manny immigrants work just long enough to get a NZ passport then use the freedom of movement granted to work in Australia? Then once they get an Australian passport, they can use it to work in the US on an E-3 visa :-)

0xADEADBEE 3y ago
You don’t even need to do that. Once you have Residency (distinct from Permanent Residency and Citizenship - the one with the passport) you are allowed to start your own company which you can use to contract yourself out to Australian companies for annual amounts double those of a lot of NZ roles. (My last role paid 240-250K NZD depending on exchange rate; the local role prior to that: 120K NZD) Didn’t know about E3 visa route. Very interesting, thank you
TMWNN 3y ago
I've heard that South Africans who can't make it to Australia directly use NZ as the stopover until, as you said, they can use the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement to move to Australia. I wouldn't be surprised if their (and others') ultimate goal is the US. That's the case with Canada, where my understanding is that FAANG offices are staffed mostly with those who cannot (and often will never get) a US visa, plus the odd local who doesn't want to move to the US for personal or family reasons.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

>The problem is that New Zealand employers are absolutely allergic to paying their staff; they are cruising on the idea that "New Zealand is a great place to live, it doesn't matter if you're paid less, the lifestyle benefits make up for it". It's exactly the same in Austria (the one with schnitzel, not kangaroos). Employers will tell you, "you don't need more than 60k/year because the quality of life is so good, you know we keep winning most livable city in the world", to the point where I think the whole winning most livable city in the world is some paid BS advertising from Austria to sucker in foreigners willing to lowball themselves and fill in the so called "skill shortage", up until they move here and realize a house costs 1 million Euros, stuff is more expensive than in Germany while salaries are lower and then they fuck off.

depereo 3y ago
There are places in NZ (Nelson for example) that semi-formalize this as the 'sunshine dividend' making up the balance of payment compared to other towns or cities. i.e suggesting because a place has nice weather that you should be paid less.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  There is a strong correlation that I noticed in Europe as well between a place begin nice to live with nice weather which tend to have lower pay while depressing places with shit weather having higher pay. Basically the nice cities with nice weather attract a lot of candidates meaning employers don't need to pay so much, while employers in cloudy, windy, rainy and depressing cities need to pay good because otherwise there's no reason to move there. It's just supply and demand. I could get a nice pay bump by moving to Netherlands or the UK, but I really can't stomach the weather in that part of Europe, as someone who like going outside for walks in the sun. Sometimes there's more to life than counting more money, and life is too short to spend it living somewhere where you don't like just to accumulate money.
  - techsupporter 3y ago
    > I could get a nice pay bump by moving to Netherlands or the UK, but I really can't stomach the weather in that part of Europe, as someone who like going outside for walks in the sun. Sometimes there's more to life than counting more money Weather is one of those intensely personal things. I am very much outside of the norm, especially when it comes to sun. I've lived in Seattle my whole life and right now it is in the mid-80s and not a cloud in the sky; the whole week is predicted to be like this. The people I know have filtered, as they do every year, into two groups. One group is posting on social media about how they're out to "enjoy the sun" and "such marvelous weather". The other, like me, is sitting inside waiting for the grey to return. (Anecdotally to my friend group, people who move here tend to be in the first group; people who were born around here in the second.) Which is to say, I would happily take a pay cut to get away from the sun so I suppose I'm glad the "gloomier" places tend to pay more.

verve_rat 3y ago

Yup. NZ employers claim there is a labour shortage, but in almost all cases I think NZ has a serious lack of business management skills. Basic ideas like staff retention and margins seem to be completely foreign to a bunch of "business leaders".