Wellingtonians pocket biggest pay packets

WELLINGTON workers are taking home the most pay on average, while construction workers are raking in big pay packets that continue to grow, says Seek.

Pay packet

IF you're trying to pick a career path, a job in construction looks like a lucrative option thanks to the booming housing market and Christchurch rebuild.

And workers in Wellington, on average, are paid better than their counterpart elsewhere in the country.

Workers in the construction industry are paid an average salary of $NZ92,565 ($A86,838.03) - significantly more than the average salary across all sectors of $NZ74,002 per year, according to job hunting site seek.co.nz.

Seek compiled the figures for December 2013 based on jobs advertised on the site.

And salaries in the construction industry are among the fastest growing, increasing by about 10 per cent from January last year - second only to the design and architecture industry's almost 12 per cent growth.

"The buoyant real estate market and Christchurch reconstruction are key factors driving the need for employees in design and architecture and construction, with this trajectory expected to continue in 2014," Seek's general manager Janet Faulding said.

A legal career, by comparison, looks less promising - wages in the legal sector fell by 12 per cent last year, to $NZ75,479.

But the average construction salary is still well below the mining, resources and energy sector, where the average worker will rake in $NZ101,622 a year.

Salaries in consulting and strategy, engineering and IT sectors all averaged more than $NZ90,000.

Wellington had the highest average salary at $81,259, while Otago had the lowest at $60,189.

Both the West Coast and Taranaki suffered big decreases in their average salaries. West Coast's average plummeted by 17 per cent to $NZ65,294, while Taranaki's fell 13 per cent to $NZ75,349.

Things were looking sunnier in Gisborne where wages rose the most of any region, increasing 10 per cent to $NZ75,000, giving the area the fourth best average salary in the country.

Seek put that down to a demand for quality employees in the wine industry.

Kiwi pay packets grew overall by three per cent, meaning workers had an average of $NZ2,000 more to spend in 2013, and Seek expects the increase to continue this year.