If you are interested in working as a machine operator in New Zealand, then you need to know all the important details regarding this profession. One important detail is the salary. Is the financial compensation enough when it comes to migrating to New Zealand for work? It turns out it is.
Also Read: How Much is the Salary of a Factory Worker in New Zealand?
If you want to learn more about the details of the salary of a machine operator in New Zealand, then continue reading this article. The information presented here is based on a YouTube video by an OFW machine operator in New Zealand.
Disclaimer: The information posted here is based on the personal experiences shared by the OFW in the video below. Please let this post serve as a guide only. If you have specific questions, you may ask the OFW by commenting on their video on their accounts.
How Much Does a Machine Operator Earn in New Zealand?
As mentioned above, this article highlights the information presented by Noie Cervantes, an OFW based in New Zealand. He works as a machine operator, and in this particular YouTube video, he shares two pay slips, one without overtime, and another with overtime. Click on the link below for more details:
In the video, Noie shows his pay slip for working as a machine operator in New Zealand. He compares two documents, one shows a week’s worth of work for overtime pay and another without overtime pay.
He said that he receives salary on a weekly basis, as is the case in many professions in New Zealand. Another common method of payment is fortnightly, which is receiving salary every two weeks.
The following are the key parts of the Pay Slip as shown in the video:
- Payments – under payments we have ordinary pay, and details include the type of pay (wages), rate, and hours.
- Deductions – deductions include rent
- Summary
In the Pay Slip, one can see our YouTuber’s previous rate as a machine operator in New Zealand. That is, he used to earn 25 NZD per hour.
In one week, he works 40 hours. That just works for 5 days, 8 hours per day. This doesn’t include overtime. If you multiply this number of hours with his hourly rate, you get a weekly pay of 1000 NZD. In Philippine pesos, that is equivalent to around 34,000 pesos per week.
As big as it sounds, this is just the gross pay. There are deductions that are detailed in the Summary section of the payslip.
Salary Deductions
The Pay Slip reveals that he has a weekly deduction for accommodation rent, of 160 NZD.
Aside from the rent, he also has to pay for P.A.Y.E. This acronym stands for “pay as you earn,” implying that in New Zealand, employees that earn a wage are taxed directly from their pay.
In the payslip, it is shown that his P.A.Y.E. amounts to 179.66 NZD. For a whole month, his total tax is 4 times that amount, which is equal to 718.64 NZD of tax per month. At the current exchange rate, that is equivalent to a monthly tax deduction of around 24,500 Philippine pesos.
There are other listed deductions that may apply to other employees, but in the case of our YouTuber, these deductions did not apply to him. These deductions include Student loans and Child Support. Also indicated is “tax credits,” which our YouTuber has none of.
Net Pay
When we now subtract his deductions from his weekly earnings of 1,000 NZD, what we have left is a net pay of 660.34 NZD. Again, deductions include house rent and pay as you earn tax.
The net pay is also indicated near the bottom of the pay slip. In Philippine pesos, this is equivalent to around 22,500 pesos per week.
Holiday Balance
Also indicated in the payslip, just below the summary, is the holiday balance. According to the YouTuber, you get 3 or more hours per week of hours that go to your balance. For example, he has a holiday balance of 196.79 hours which he can use the file for different types of leaves, including vacation or sick leave.
As mentioned, each week you are given 3 hours. For this example, 196 hours is equivalent to 24.5 working days. That is, you divide that number of hours to 8, which is the total number of hours per workday. That will, of course, increase if you lessen your number of vacations, leaves, or absences in general.
Year to Date
Another important part of the payslip is the amount indicated for “Year to Date.” He said that this represents his income in a year. In the example, the indicated value is $54,064.50, but this only represents 10 months of work. At this time of writing, the current exchange rate shows that this is equivalent to ten months’ worth of salary amounting to 1.84 million Philippine Pesos.
As a summary, the values indicated above are for working without overtime as a machine operator in New Zealand. Again, these vary depending on the nature of the work and the expertise and experience of the worker, among others.
In the following paragraphs, he shares how much you can earn as a machine operator in New Zealand if you factor in overtime hours.
Pay Slip with Overtime
He shared another payslip, this time the pay includes overtime. Also, in this new payslip, his hourly rate is now bigger than the previous one. From 25 NZD, the rate increased to 27 NZD per hour.
In this payslip, it also showed that he worked 64.50 hours in that particular week. Clearly, this already includes working during the weekends. In fact, he said that he no longer rested. A normal workweek only requires 40 hours per week; this one exceeds by 24.50 hours.
As a result, he earned 1,741 NZD that week. This is equivalent to a gross pay of 60,000 pesos. Since this is gross pay, there are deductions, including the ones mentioned in the previous article.
In the payslip, he had a P.A.Y.E. deduction amounting to 424.28 NZD. He said that if your overtime is high, your tax will also increase.
Student loans, Child support, and tax credit also appear in the Payslip, although he didn’t have any of the three. He mentioned that in order to avail of a student loan, one needs to be a permanent resident in New Zealand. He was still under a working visa when he uploaded this video.
As a result, his net pay is 1,317.22 NZD in one week. That is equivalent to 45,000 Philippine pesos in just one week’s worth of work with overtime. If he can manage to work overtime every week for one month, he can actually earn 180,000 pesos in just that span of time.
Having said that, it is almost physically impossible to work over time for four straight weeks and not feel terribly exhausted. That’s unless you can somehow manage to maintain a good health by compensating on sleep and a good diet, among others, but even this requires high levels of discipline.
This new pay slip also indicates a holiday balance amounting to 235.51 hours. That’s equivalent to around 29 days of leave that he can use when he wants to go on vacation, is sick, or for other reasons.
Cost of Living in New Zealand
What about the expenses of living in New Zealand? Aside from the taxes and other deductions, these living expenses definitely factor in, and we need to look at them.
Cost of living depends largely on whether you live in the big cities or not. In the big cities, like Auckland, room rent, for example, is probably around 300 to 400 NZD.
Another factor to consider when it comes to house rent is the work contract itself. In many cases, the employers themselves take care of your accommodation, and in the pay slip shown previously, you can see house rent deductions already reflected in. House rent is deducted on a weekly basis, just like the salary reflects weekly.
Other expenses include utilities such as the electric bill. The electric bill depends on the appliances that you have at your home. One way to save money is to manage how often you use your appliances so that you’re not always using them when you don’t have to. You can, for example, just wash clothes once a week; that way you’re only using a washing machine once a week.
Despite these deductions, working in New Zealand definitely has a lot of perks. While there is definitely a culture of working hard in the country, employers respect your life outside work, and therefore you will definitely enjoy a great work / life balance.
In fact, surveys show that most employers understand the importance of participating in special events within families. If you work in New Zealand, you can almost always tell your boss that you need time off work so you can spend it with your family on a special occasion, and they will respond positively.
Summary
There you have it. Hopefully, this article, and the video featured in this article, got you interested in working as a machine operator in New Zealand. There are many reasons why New Zealand is a great place to work and live in, and the salary is just one of those reasons.