A person working as Public Relations Officer in New Zealand typically earns around 55,000 NZD. Salaries range from 29,200 NZD (lowest) to 83,600 NZD (highest).
This is the average salary including housing, transport, and other benefits. Public Relations Officer salaries in New Zealand vary drastically based on experience, skills, gender, or location. Below you will find a detailed breakdown based on many different criteria.
Minimum Salary 29,200 NZD |
Median 49,600 NZD |
Maximum 83,600 NZD |
Salaries for the position Public Relations Officer in New Zealand range from 29,200 NZD (starting salary) to 83,600 NZD (maximum salary). It should be noted that the given figure is not the legally mandated minimum wage; rather, it represents the lowest figure reported in a salary survey that included thousands of participants and professionals from all regions of the country.
With a median salary of 49,600 NZD, half of the professionals who work as Public Relations Officer in New Zealand earn less than this amount, and the other half earn more. The median salary denotes the middle value of salaries. Ideally, you would want to belong to the group earning more than the median salary, located on the right side of the salary distribution graph.
The median is closely associated with two other values known as the 25th and 75th percentiles. By examining the salary distribution chart, it can be determined that 25% of professionals employed as Public Relations Officer in New Zealand earn less than 41,300 NZD, while 75% earn more. Similarly, the chart shows that 75% earn less than 56,100 NZD while 25% earn more.
To provide a better understanding of expected salaries, we categorized the frequently occurring salaries into different ranges. This approach provides a more precise representation of salary distribution for the job title Public Relations Officer in New Zealand compared to simply calculating the average. The majority of reported salaries, approximately 65%, fall within the range of 32,500 NZD to 44,100 NZD. About 20% of salaries are below the 32,500 NZD mark, while 10% fall within the range of 44,100 NZD to 49,400 NZD. Only 5% of individuals have salaries exceeding 49,400 NZD.
0 - 2 Years | 33,500 NZD | |
2 - 5 Years | +23% | 41,100 NZD |
5 - 10 Years | +42% | 58,300 NZD |
10 - 15 Years | +17% | 68,100 NZD |
15 - 20 Years | +10% | 74,900 NZD |
20+ Years | +6% | 79,300 NZD |
The experience level is the most important factor in determining the salary. Naturally, the more years of experience the higher the wage. We broke down salaries by experience level for people working as Public Relations Officer and this is what we found.
Employees with less than two years of experience earn approximately 33,500 NZD.
While someone with an experience level between two and five years is expected to earn 41,100 NZD, 23% more than someone with less than two year's experience.
Moving forward, an experience level between five and ten years lands a salary of 58,300 NZD, 42% more than someone with two to five years of experience.
Additionally, professionals whose expertise span anywhere between ten and fifteen years get a salary equivalent to 68,100 NZD, 17% more than someone with five to ten years of experience.
If the experience level is between fifteen and twenty years, then the expected wage is 74,900 NZD, 10% more than someone with ten to fifteen years of experience.
Lastly, employees with more than twenty years of professional experience get a salary of 79,300 NZD, 6% more than people with fifteen to twenty years of experience.
High School | 41,100 NZD | |
Certificate or Diploma | +40% | 57,500 NZD |
Bachelor's Degree | +42% | 81,400 NZD |
We all know that higher education equals a bigger salary, but how much more money can a degree add to your income? We broke down salaries by education level for the position Public Relations Officer in order to make a comparison.
Employees at this education level have an average salary of 41,100 NZD.
At this level, the average salary becomes 57,500 NZD, 40% more than the previous level.
At this level, the average salary becomes 81,400 NZD, 42% more than the previous level.
Though gender should not have an effect on pay, in reality, it does. So who gets paid more: men or women? For the people who work as Public Relations Officer in New Zealand, the average difference between the salary of male and female employees is 5%.
Male | 56,300 NZD | |
Female | -5% | 53,500 NZD |
Individuals working as Public Relations Officer in New Zealand are likely to observe a salary increase of approximately 10% every 16 months. The national average annual increment for all professions combined is 8% granted to employees every 16 months.
The term Annual Salary Increase usually refers to the increase in 12 calendar month period, but because it is rare that people get their salaries reviewed exactly on the one-year mark, it is more meaningful to know the frequency and the rate at the time of the increase.
The annual salary Increase in a calendar year (12 months) can be easily calculated as follows: Annual Salary Increase = Increase Rate x 12 / Increase Frequency
Not all compensation increases are reflected directly in the salary. Some companies offer upgraded packages to their staff instead of cash money. The figures displayed here account only for direct increments to the base salary.
48% of surveyed staff reported that they haven't received any bonuses or incentives in the previous year while 52% said that they received at least one form of monetary bonus.
Those who got bonuses reported rates ranging from 3% to 5% of their annual salary.
Received Bonus | 52% | |
No Bonus | 48% |
The most standard form of bonus, where the employee is awarded based on their exceptional performance.
Company Performance BonusesOccasionally, some companies like to celebrate excess earnings and profits with their staff collectively in the form of bonuses that are granted to everyone. The amount of the bonus will probably be different from person to person depending on their role within the organization.
Goal-Based BonusesGranted upon achieving an important goal or milestone.
Holiday / End of Year BonusesThese types of bonuses are given without a reason and usually resemble an appreciation token.
People tend to confuse bonuses with commissions. A commission is a prefixed rate at which someone gets paid for items sold or deals completed while a bonus is in most cases arbitrary and unplanned.
The main two types of jobs | |
Revenue Generators | Supporting Cast |
Employees that are directly involved in generating revenue or profit for the organization. Their field of expertise usually matches the type of business. | Employees that support and facilitate the work of revenue generators. Their expertise is usually different from that of the core business operations. |
Example: | Example: |
Revenue generators usually get more and higher bonuses, higher salaries, and more frequent salary increments. The reason is quite simple: it is easier to quantify your value to the company in monetary terms when you participate in revenue generation.
Top management personnel and senior employees naturally exhibit higher bonus rates and frequencies than juniors. This is very predictable due to the inherent responsibilities of being higher in the hierarchy. People in top positions can easily get double or triple bonus rates than employees down the pyramid.
The hourly wage is the salary paid in one worked hour. Usually, jobs are classified into two categories: salaried jobs and hourly jobs. Salaried jobs pay a fixed amount regardless of the hours worked. Hourly jobs pay per worked hour. To convert salary into hourly wage the above formula is used (assuming 5 working days in a week and 8 working hours per day which is the standard for most jobs). The hourly wage calculation may differ slightly depending on the worked hours per week and the annual vacation allowance. The figures mentioned above are good approximations and are considered to be the standard. One major difference between salaried employees and hourly paid employees is overtime eligibility. Salaried employees are usually exempt from overtime as opposed to hourly paid staff.
The minimum pay rate per hour for people working as Public Relations Officer in New Zealand is 14 NZD. This is the minimum as per the gathered data in the salary survey not the minimum hourly rate mandated by law.
Job Title | Average Salary |
Public Relations | -100% | |
Communications Associate | 49,100 NZD | -11% |
Communications Project Manager | 111,000 NZD | +100% |
Communications Specialist | 60,800 NZD | +11% |
Community Engagement Manager | 72,700 NZD | +32% |
Community Manager | 76,400 NZD | +39% |
Crisis Communication Manager | 91,700 NZD | +67% |
Data Privacy Communications Manager | 97,300 NZD | +77% |
Director of Communications | 144,000 NZD | +160% |
Employer Branding Strategist | 110,000 NZD | +100% |
Employer Relations Specialist | 97,400 NZD | +77% |
Government Relations Officer | 89,100 NZD | +62% |
Head of Communications | 140,000 NZD | +150% |
Head of Public Relations | 163,000 NZD | +200% |
Investor Relations Officer | 96,300 NZD | +75% |
Marketing Communications Executive | 126,000 NZD | +130% |
Media Relations Specialist | 118,000 NZD | +110% |
Meetings Coordinator | 44,900 NZD | -18% |
Public Relations Executive | 123,000 NZD | +120% |
Public Relations Manager | 143,000 NZD | +160% |
Public Relations Officer | 55,000 NZD | -0% |
Public Relations Practitioner | 73,800 NZD | +34% |
Public Relations Specialist | 61,600 NZD | +12% |
Relationship Management Officer | 46,300 NZD | -16% |
Trust and Safety Professional | 82,400 NZD | +50% |
Where can you get paid more, working in a private company or the government? The difference between the public or government sector salaries and the private sector salaries in New Zealand is 5% on average across all career fields.
Private Sector | 94,900 NZD | |
Public Sector | +5% | 99,900 NZD |
A good and competitive compensation would range anywhere between 49,600 NZD and 56,100 NZD. This is a very rough estimate. Experience and education play a very huge part in the final earnings.
All salary and compensation figures displayed here are gross salary figures, that is the salary before tax deductions. Because taxes may differ across sectors and locations, it is difficult to accurately calculate the net salary after tax for every career.
The base salary for a careers like Public Relations Officer in New Zealand ranges from 29,200 NZD to 41,300 NZD. The base salary depends on many factors including experience and education. It is not easy to provide a figure with very little information, so take this range with a grain of salt.
Both are indicators. If your salary is higher than both the average and the median then you are doing very well. If your salary is lower than both, then many people earn more than you and there is plenty of room for improvement. If your wage is between the average and the median, then things can be a bit complicated. We wrote a guide to explain all about the different scenarios. How to compare your salary