Feature
Issue No. 12 - August/September 2003
Salary Survey
Business confidence in South Australia remained positive in the first half of the year, according to a benchmarking salary survey by recruitment firm, Ashby Molitor Executive.
The survey of clients in April and May revealed that 59% of businesses indicated that they expected a positive outlook through to the end of the calendar year. In 25% of cases respondents also planned to recruit permanent and contract staff.
Despite business confidence salary increases are modest, in the 3–5% range. Ashby Molitor principal, Allison Ashby says ‘rising stars’ are expected to receive salary increases above 10% in recognition of the need to retain future business executives.
“Our survey was conducted through April and May of 2003 with a wide representation of businesses and professional services firms in South Australia contributing to the survey,” Alison says.
“Overall business outlook is consistent, with 39% of respondents in commerce/industry indicating that they expected no change to their business output, whilst 20% indicated an improvement in performance.”
Ashby Molitor specialises in the accounting and finance sector and collected more detailed information in that area. In the practising accounting profession the outlook was more positive with 42.5% expecting an increase in business, with business services and consulting divisions leading the way.
The Clerks Award
The Clerk’s award is the basis of all employment conditions– even for categories outside an award. Workers must be paid at least the Clerks Award mandated salary. A Clerk Class 2 over the age of 21 is currently paid $27,310.40 plus Super, giving a package of $29,768.33. This is for a 38 hour week, and overtime is payable when more than 8 hours are worked in a day. Most accounting roles are at Class 2 or above.
Commerce/Industry
The major time for salary review in this area (37.5%) is June and the expected increase will r...
