I think we can get a rough idea of where the different salaries sit in relation to each other if we assume first year in rank pilots who are each doing 65 hours a month and take super and allowances and bonuses and salary sacrifice out of the equation.
I know that those things make a significant difference but calculating it like this provides an idea of what the difference likely is.
A QF Captain year one would take home after tax $179,106 AUD
A Jetconnect Captain year one would take home $134;618 NZD
A QF First Officer year one would take home $124,736 AUD
A Jetconnect First Officer year one would take home $81,152 NZD
I used the online tax office calculators to arrive at these take home figures after adding 11.6 hours pay to the QF base salary to bring them up to 65 hours. The QF pilots would most likely be taking advantage of salary sacrifice in order to lower the tax burden but still, it paints a picture of the relative differences.
To get an even better understanding of the difference I used a ‘cost of living comparison’ website with Sydney and Auckland selected and it said Jetconnect Captains would need an extra $20k NZD ( after tax) per annum to achieve the same lifestyle in Auckland as QF Captains. Jetconnect First Officers fare worse in that they would need an extra $27k NZD ( after tax ) to achieve the same standard of living as QF First Officers who live in Sydney.
Contrary to what an earlier poster said the cost of living in Sydney is higher than in Auckland ( according to this randomly selected website).
Also interesting to me was that a year 1 A320 F/O for Air New Zealand earns about $21k (after tax) more than a Jetconnect First Officer which puts them about $6k behind the standard of living the QF First Officers are achieving but at the same time I don’t know if the Air NZ pilots are earning more than that base at the 65 hour mark. They probably are in which case they would be achieving a similar standard of living to their QF counterparts.
One can only assume that the allowances, bonuses, super contributions,and salary sacrifice effects put QF further ahead in relation to New Zealand based pilots.