Reserve Bank rejects salary reports

Reserve Bank rejects salary reports

The Reserve Bank today rejected as "rubbish" news reports claiming that Reserve Bank staff remuneration rose 15.4 percent on average per employee.

"The analysis is just plain wrong," Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard said.

"It is a simplistic analysis. It takes no account of the fact that, like most organisations, the Bank's staff change over a year. Staff leave and new staff replace them, often at different salaries depending on their experience and skills and the job market. Departments expand or shrink, as different skill sets are needed when our operations change. Staff are promoted to additional responsibilities.

"To look at a total wage bill from one year to another and deduce average wage movements, as this story has done, is not just misleading, it is rubbish," Dr Bollard said.

The Bank's salaries were benchmarked annually against external salary movements.

Dr Bollard said that the average salary increase for Bank staff, including new staff and promotions, but excluding the Governor's salary, was 5.0 percent after the annual review in April 2006. This compared with the 5.3 percent for private sector wages and salaries shown in the unadjusted Labour Cost Index (LCI) for the year to June 2006.

His own salary increase was 4.0 percent in the year to September 2006.

ends

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