Reply to: Good permie salary for Australia?

[gadgetman]

Gosh it was a long time ago now but I think CXC quoted incorrect values for LAFHA and my novated lease and left out certain expenses that ITG said I could claim.

I am indeed currently looking for testers, 3 in fact but the current roles require significant Agile experience. I also have plans for another 14 Senior TA and TA roles within my SIT team over the next month to 6 weeks. These do not need Agile. PM me your CV if your are interested.

Current role is on St Kilda Road, not far from you

Regarding CXC's quote and details - can you expand a bit on things to look out for ? - On the testing front are you looking for resource at the moment - I am currently in Melbourne (Middle Park) ?

[weemster]

So much in there I disagree with, where to start?

$400 is pretty crap, I employ testers on up to $700 per day with a few years experience. Now that's the charge rate to the client so take off what 15%? But still, to get $400 you must be inexperienced or are being ripped off. In general I find rates == UK (before the slump) at current exchange rates and are on the way up.

I found a CXC quote gave me less than I'm getting with my current payroll outfit and their quote missed several items and got others wrong. Be careful there.

$1 to £1 is just nonsense. A lot of things (with some notable exceptions) are more expensive even at closer to $2 to £1. Overall I think it evens out. For example the cheapest pub beer I've found is $7 for a pint. I've no idea how you can say $400 = £400.

Does your 'rocking lifestyle' include buying a house? Prices here are very high (in Melbourne they were recently quoting prices increasing at $700 per day) and I would imagine this is especially true for anywhere decent in Sydney. Are you in the city?

If not what's your rent? Our 3 bed place is close to 3 grand a month (in a suburb of Melbourne).

I'm certainly not knocking things here just trying to be a bit more accurate!

The good thing about the current exchange rate is that its great for sending money back to the UK.

Regarding CXC's quote and details - can you expand a bit on things to look out for ? - On the testing front are you looking for resource at the moment - I am currently in Melbourne (Middle Park) ?

[Stan.goodvibes]

@gadgetman,

depends on your perspective. I agree that $400/day was low, but I as prepared to bite it to get back into banking. Other contracts are closer to $500+/day.

I have no dependents and no financial commitments. So sure you can compare individual item costs but I'm about the overall lifestyle experience. Having swapped back between Oz/NZ/UK a few times I need to be earning at least the same if not more pounds than dollars ($500/day or 500 quid a day) to have anything close to the same kind of lifestyle in London than I have here.

And that's not counting for the lack of surf in London, which no amount of sterling can compensate for.

Other than that, thanks for the comments re CXC etc.

[gadgetman]

I'm too old for the club bit but I've been charged up to $11 for a pint in a normal pub.

A reasonable meal out would be around $35 to $40 a head but they often do BYO which can save you a lot (no corkage charge).

OTOH I can get a great hot lunch for < $10 from a local place and there's dozens to choose from; Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesia, Malaysian plus your normal Aussie establishments and fast food.

I am in a suburb of Melbourne BTW though I don't imagine Sydney is much different.

Your biggest outgoings are likely to be housing, health insurance and groceries.

[DieScum]

So it's like 4 quid a pint? If you go for a meal out, then few pints afterwards, then a club and so on... what's the normal cost in downtown Sydney?

[gadgetman]

So much in there I disagree with, where to start?

$400 is pretty crap, I employ testers on up to $700 per day with a few years experience. Now that's the charge rate to the client so take off what 15%? But still, to get $400 you must be inexperienced or are being ripped off. In general I find rates == UK (before the slump) at current exchange rates and are on the way up.

I found a CXC quote gave me less than I'm getting with my current payroll outfit and their quote missed several items and got others wrong. Be careful there.

$1 to £1 is just nonsense. A lot of things (with some notable exceptions) are more expensive even at closer to $2 to £1. Overall I think it evens out. For example the cheapest pub beer I've found is $7 for a pint. I've no idea how you can say $400 = £400.

Does your 'rocking lifestyle' include buying a house? Prices here are very high (in Melbourne they were recently quoting prices increasing at $700 per day) and I would imagine this is especially true for anywhere decent in Sydney. Are you in the city?

If not what's your rent? Our 3 bed place is close to 3 grand a month (in a suburb of Melbourne).

I'm certainly not knocking things here just trying to be a bit more accurate!

The good thing about the current exchange rate is that its great for sending money back to the UK.

Oh, BTW, I start on $400/day, but going thru CXC I only pay 12.9% tax annually so I end up with just over $1500/week ($6500/month and includes pension payment already deducted). Thats ample for me to have a rocking lifestyle in Sydney, and from experience I always compare $1 to 1 pound - my quality of life in Sydney is about the same as if I was getting 400 quid a day in London (actually make that 'at least 400 quid').

It's different for me because I'm not converting back to sterling. I'll do this role for a while then try and get back into IB in the City and then I'll pay my mortgage off etc over here, because that works for me going this way.

In your case you go to Oz for quality of life, not because you want to send money back home IMHO.

[Stan.goodvibes]

OK since that last post... epic fail on the contract front:

Agent txtd me on the Friday evening at 11pm (in NZ) to tell me that the contract I was starting on Monday (in Sydney) has been canned. No reason given but then he said he'd call me Monday when i arrived, but of course my NZ mobile # is no longer valid in Oz and i now have a new mobile.

I tried calling him on the weekend to see what the story was but he couldn't spare 5 minutes to talk to me.

So, in Sydney, no contract, but having a cracking time staying at my sisters by the beach. This place rocks.

BTW, agency is Mosaic - further proof that Oz has it's fair share of chav agents as well as the UK!

No shortgage of contract work in my field by the looks of it, so now thinking that getting blown out by the client might turn out to be a good thing

[zemoxyl]

Re the GBP v AUD.

If you are taking money into Oz at the mo. , then it's a bit of a non-runner. E.g. you sell a house here and hope to buy there - no way.

However if you are going there with no money and have some spare cash at the end of the
month from your job/contract, then converting the surplus into GBP ; it is now well in your favour.

[DieScum]

Thanks mate.

I'm only considering it at the moment. One risk is I may get raped on the exchange rate in the future as sterling is historically low at the moment.

[barely_pointless]

120K is fine, you'll have a ball

[DieScum]

No salary is 64k GBP and question is whether 120k AUD is roughly equivalent taking everything in to consideration.

[barely_pointless]

Dscum,

you originally said 64K +5 salary, if this makes 69K, then that's a pretty low average, I've no idea what you earned in the UK, but I went from 80Kgbp (in the city) to 110K aus about 7 years ago and it's taken the best part of 5 years to get back to 150K in oz, and I'm still not on a par with UK earnings.

Don't go too low

[swamp]

This website is about contracting in the UK.

HTH

[DieScum]

Well I'm single so no family to support.

First I've heard of tax exemptions so looks like LAFH allowance could give me 20k or so AUD tax free.

[phillrow]

Yeah both Melbourne and Sydney as just as or more expensive to live in than London and our wages/contract rates are much less. I took a 60% cut coming back here (damn those UK visa changes), it's not much fun really....and that was based on the getting low to what they had been London rates and the current poor GBP->AUD exchange rate.