Serious money
Whoever said there’s no money in health & safety? PETER BATEMAN analyses this year’s survey of incomes to find there’s plenty to aspire to at the top end of town.
Our thanks to the nearly 450 people who took part in this year’s survey, which was renamed “income” rather than “salary” to be more inclusive of the self-employed. As for the last few years, entry to the survey was limited to health & safety practitioners, occupational health nurses, and occupational hygienists – the people whose everyday focus is the improvement workplace health or safety or both.
On the remuneration front, the clearest message from this year’s survey is that some people are making significant incomes, thanks very much. This year we extended the top end of the selectable income range from $140,000+, where it had sat for years, to $200,000+. So while the overall median income for full-time people rose only slightly, to $99,500, it is now much clearer that there are good numbers of people earning well over $150K, and more than 20 respondents earning over $200K. Don’t know about you, but that’s pretty respectable money where I come from.
Overall, the median income of people in full-time work went up 3.8% since last year’s survey, well below the 8.4% rise the previous year. However, in this 125th anniversary year of women’s suffrage it is disappointing to see the gender gap still a gaping $19,130, down only a few dollars from last year’s $20,770.
Kate Sheppard would not have been amused.
Income winners this year include the under-30s ($10K up on last year), people working in the education sector ($14K up!) and in transport ($12K), while that relatively small group based in Tauranga went up by $17K. Small sample size or really savvy negotiators?
Three new questions appeared in this year’s survey, dealing with organisation size, membership of the HASANZ Register, and SafePlus assessment. But the most interesting tweak was to the question on the proportion of their time people spend on each broad type of risk. This year, we split “work-related health risks” into two: physical health risks and psychosocial health risks. The intention was to get a handle on the time people are devoting to things like bullying and sexual harassment. The result suggests respondents are spending 11% of their time on psychosocial health risks, which is a pleasing start to what is staring everyone in the face as the key neglected work risk of our time. (Curiously, the proportion of time spent on safety risks plummeted, from 51% last year to 38% this year.)
Survey respondents also had the opportunity to describe how they have been able to influence change in their workplaces – surely a key part of being in the potentially subversive role of health & safety. The responses are fascinating and wide-ranging. A selection of comments follows later in this section.
| GENDER SPLIT | |
| Male | 46.2% |
| Female | 53.6% |
| Prefer not to say | 0% |
| AGE RANGE | |
| Under 30 | 4.9% |
| 30-39 | 17.0% |
| 40-49 | 26.7% |
| 50-59 | 35.0% |
| 60-69 | 15.7% |
| 70+ | 0.7% |
| HOW LONG IN OHS ROLES? | |
| 3 years or less | 15.3% |
| 4 – 9 yea rs | 34.5% |
| 10 years or more | 50.2% |
| HIGHEST FORMAL OHS QUALIFICATION? | |
| H&S rep training | 5.4% |
| Certificate (eg NZQA) | 24.7% |
| Diploma | 30.9% |
| Bachelor’s degree | 5.4% |
| Post-grad diploma | 20.9% |
| Master’s or PhD | 8.1% |
| No H&S qualification | 4.7% |
| WHICH BODY(S) DO YOU CURRENTLY BELONG TO? | |
| HRINZ | 3.3% |
| HSPNZ | 1.2% |
| IOSH | 16.1% |
| NZIHSM | 1.5% |
| NZISM | 79.1% |
| NZOHNA | 11.6% |
| NZ Occ Hygiene Soc | 5.1% |
| NZ Safety Council | 5.7% |
| Safety Institute of Australia | 5.4% |
| (Note: only 335 people responded to this question, which suggests 111 respondents belong to none of these bodies. The percentages are “out of 335”. They add to more than 100 because some people belong to multiple bodies.) | |
| ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE HASANZ REGISTER? | |
| Yes | 11.9% |
| No | 88.1% |
| DO YOU WORK FULL TIME? | |
| Yes | 92.8% |
| No | 7.2% |
| THE FOCUS OF YOUR WORK LIES IN WHICH INDUSTRY SECTOR(S)? | |
| Agriculture/forestry/fishing | 15.5% |
| Construction | 31.2% |
| Education | 5.0% |
| Government (local or central) | 19.4% |
| Healthcare | 8.0% |
| Hospitality | 3.2% |
| Manufacturing | 31.7% |
| Mining/oil & gas | 7.7% |
| Not-for-profit | 3.2% |
| Retail/wholesale | 7.3% |
| Transport | 18.9% |
| Utilities | 12.5% |
| WHERE IN NZ ARE YOU BASED? | |
| Auckland | 30.5% |
| Hamilton | 2.0% |
| Tauranga | 5.8% |
| Wellington | 13.7% |
| North Island (elsewhere) | 20.9% |
| Christchurch | 13.9% |
| Dunedin | 2.5% |
| South Island (elsewhere) | 10.8% |
| WHAT PROPORTION OF TIME DO YOU SPEND ON EACH TYPE OF RISK? | |
| Catastrophic risks (eg explosions) | 11% |
| Work-related safety risks (eg falls, machinery, vehicles) | 38% |
| Work-related physical health risks (eg noise, dust, chemicals, lifting) | 25% |
| Work-related psychosocial health risks (eg bullying, sexual harassment) | 11% |
| Personal health-related safety risks (eg impairment, hearing/eyesight, heart health) | 14% |
| WHAT OTHER ROLES DO YOU ALSO HAVE RESPONSIBILITY FOR? | |
| Office administration | 28.1% |
| Environment | 45.9% |
| HR | 14.3% |
| Quality | 31.5% |
| ACC/rehab | 62.5% |
| Security | 13.8% |
| WHO DO YOU REPORT TO? | |
| Someone in a more senior OHS role | 26.0% |
| An operational/line/regional manager | 16.4% |
| HR | 7.2% |
| CEO/GM/Director | 36.1% |
| Not applicable (self-employed) | 10.5% |
| Other role | 3.8% |
| ARE YOU IN THE SAME ROLE WITH THE SAME ORGANISATION AS 12 MONTHS AGO? | |
| Yes | 77.1% |
| No | 22.9% |
| HOW MANY PEOPLE WORK IN YOUR ORGANISATION IN NZ? | |
| 1 - 19 | 14.8% |
| 20 - 99 | 12.8% |
| 100 - 499 | 31.2% |
| 500 - 999 | 13.0% |
| 1000 - 1999 | 8.7% |
| 2000+ | 19.5% |
| HAS YOUR ORGANISATION BEEN ASSESSED BY A SAFEPLUS ASSESSOR? | |
| Yes | 7.2% |
| No | 79.8% |
| Not sure | 13.0% |
| FIVE YEARS FROM NOW, HOW LIKELY ARE YOU STILL TO BE WORKING IN OHS? | |
| Very likely | 52.4% |
| Quite likely | 34.5% |
| Not very likely | 12.2% |
| Certainly not | 0.9% |
| SINCE 2016 HAVE YOU BEEN MADE REDUNDANT FROM AN OHS ROLE? | |
| Yes | 7.7% |
| No | 92.3% |
| NOTE: this data includes only respondents working full time. N = 414 | |
| WHICH BEST DESCRIBES YOUR EMPLOYMENT STATUS? | |
| Employee | 90.6% |
| Self-employed | 9.4% |
| WHAT IS YOUR ANNUAL BASE PERSONAL INCOME BEFORE TAX? (DO NOT INCLUDE ALLOWANCES) | |
| Under $50,000 | 1.0% |
| $50,000 - $59,999 | 4.8% |
| $60,000 - $69,999 | 8.2% |
| $70,000 - $79,999 | 12.3% |
| $80,000 - $89,999 | 12.3% |
| $90,000 - $99,999 | 12.1% |
| $100,000 - $119,999 | 20.3% |
| $120,000 - $139,999 | 9.7% |
| $140,000 - $159,999 | 7.0% |
| $160,000 - $179,999 | 4.4% |
| $180,000 - $199,999 | 2.7% |
| $200,000+ | 5.3% |
| WHICH BENEFIT(S) DO YOU RECEIVE? | |
| Company vehicle | 45.3% |
| Superannuation scheme | 39.1% |
| Time off for study/CPD | 54.0% |
| Health insurance | 38.1% |
| ARE YOUR SERVICES ROUTINELY CHARGED OUT TO EXTERNAL CLIENTS? | |
| Yes | 18.8% |
| No | 81.2% |
| (For those who answered Yes above; N=77) | |
| WHAT IS YOUR TYPICAL HOURLY CHARGE RATE? | |
| Average | $139/hour |
| Median | $125/hour |
| An average is meaningless in this context. Instead we have used the median, calculated as the middle value in an ordered list. Only where N is 20 or more has a value been calculated. NOTE: this data includes only respondents working full time | ||
| CATEGORY | N | BASE INCOME ($) |
| Overall | 414 | 99,500 |
| By gender | ||
| Male | 199 | 109,130 |
| Female | 215 | 90,000 |
| By age group | ||
| Under 30 | 20 | 75,830 |
| 30-39 | 67 | 92,220 |
| 40-49 | 144 | 107,690 |
| 50-59 | 150 | 100,910 |
| 60-69 | 66 | 98,750 |
| By time in H&S | ||
| 3 years or less | 60 | 74,410 |
| 4 – 9 years | 139 | 93,120 |
| 10+ years | 215 | 113,000 |
| By OHS qualification | ||
| Certificate | 105 | 88,950 |
| Diploma | 130 | 98,330 |
| Post-graduate diploma | 89 | 112,100 |
| Master’s/PhD | 36 | 138,000 |
| By industry sector | ||
| Ag/forestry/fishing | 61 | 88,570 |
| Construction | 127 | 97,220 |
| Education | 20 | 102,500 |
| Healthcare | 29 | 92,000 |
| Government | 80 | 102,630 |
| Manufacturing | 131 | 90,770 |
| Mining/oil & gas | 31 | 115,000 |
| Retail/wholesale | 26 | 107,140 |
| Transport | 73 | 106,670 |
| Utilities | 52 | 115,000 |
| By location | ||
| Auckland | 129 | 110,400 |
| Tauranga | 25 | 110,000 |
| Wellington | 55 | 108,330 |
| North Island (elsewhere) | 82 | 90,450 |
| Christchurch | 60 | 95,830 |
| South Island (not Chch, Dunedin) | 44 | 82,500 |
| By professional body membership | ||
| IOSH | 51 | 132,000 |
| NZISM | 248 | 103,850 |
| NZOHNA | 33 | 80,000 |
| By HASANZ Register membership | ||
| Member | 50 | 100,830 |
| Non-member | 364 | 89,430 |
| By number of people in organisation | ||
| 1 – 19 | 54 | 95,000 |
| 20 – 99 | 55 | 84,000 |
| 100 – 499 | 127 | 102,160 |
| 500 – 999 | 58 | 105,830 |
| 1000 – 1999 | 35 | 110,000 |
| 2000+ | 85 | 106,670 |
| YEAR | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of respondents overall | 446 | 488 | 479 | 328 | 351 |
| % aged under 50 | 48.6 | 50.8 | 52.0 | 52.1 | 52.4 |
| % with high H&S qualifications | 34.4 | 29.1 | 32.6 | 34.2 | 31.9 |
| (degree/postgrad dip or above) | |||||
| No. of respondents (full time) | 414 | 441 | 436 | 296 | 312 |
| Median income – overall full time | 99,500 | 95,865 | 88,410 | 87,390 | 81,930 |
| Median income – male full time | 109,130 | 106,840 | 94,310 | 95,430 | 89,130 |
| Median income – female full time | 90,000 | 86,070 | 80,160 | 78,970 | 76,570 |