Each year at ACE we survey our member organisations to provide a credible, reliable and consistent source of information on the remuneration and benefits provided to employees. This comprehensive survey covers corporate services roles and specific technical roles, including engineers, architects, surveyors, planners, project managers, scientists and other consulting occupations and professions.
ACE New Zealand Chief Executive Helen Davidson delves into the detail and explains what the survey results mean.
This year 107 of our members were represented in the responses, along with 71 members of Consulting Surveyors New Zealand. This represents 13,550 consultants, engineers and surveyors in Aotearoa across 76 benchmark jobs, making our report the most credible and reliable source of remuneration information in professional services consulting in New Zealand’s built and natural environment.
Despite the anticipated improvement in the economy this year, this hasn’t materialised, and it’s been another extremely challenging 12 months for ACE New Zealand members as they navigate economic uncertainty and the Government’s shift in direction for infrastructure planning and delivery. The first half of 2025 was particularly difficult with many firms continuing to struggle with a major slowdown in work, despite Government announcements that billions of dollars’ worth of projects were getting underway following the introduction in 2024 of the 30-year National Infrastructure Plan. This led to many firms cutting staff numbers, or shifting staff on to limited hours, to help them survive one of the toughest periods in recent history.
But staff numbers of ACE New Zealand and Consulting Surveyors New Zealand members have now stabilised, with employee turnover tracking similar or lower than last year for almost 80% of organisations compared to six months ago. Our latest How’s business? survey report in the mid-year revealed a mood of cautious optimism, and we’re beginning to see a slow increase in work coming to market, an improvement in business confidence, and members are starting to look ahead with renewed hope.
Pay movement overall has remained steady with increases for specialist level and above. This ranges from 4.1% for those in specialist and technical positions to 3.3% for senior management roles and CEOs of small organisations.
These increases are offset by smaller increases for general staff with the large increases in the previous five years driven by increases in the minimum and living wage.
We were pleased to see the draft National Infrastructure Plan focus on central government as a leader in infrastructure and its opportunity to step up and set an example for everyone. The plan calls for a persistent effort to improve the operating environment for infrastructure and grow the capacity and capability for our workforce to build and maintain the infrastructure we need.
As we gear up for more work coming into the infrastructure pipeline, there’s a real risk that staff and capability gaps could hinder our ability to deliver. Long-term workforce planning is crucial to reverse the engineering exodus Aotearoa is experiencing, and we also need to think strategically about retaining the people we have.
The skill shortage we are still experiencing will continue to challenge employers, including the lower pay increases at graduate level compared to the overall market. Having remuneration policies that are fair, equitable, robust, flexible, and transparent, with performance linked to pay, will help firms retain key staff and meet market demands as the pipeline picks up.
This survey also showed that while money is important to attract and retain staff, employees place high value on flexible working arrangements, enhanced management training, and mentoring.
I encourage you to assess your organisation’s approach to employee recognition and remuneration, and workforce planning to ensure that you’re prioritising your efforts on the most effective aspects of talent attraction and retention.
Being future ready also means it is essential to acknowledge, prepare for and respond to the trends that are shaping the future of work, such as the rapid advances in machine learning and AI, and the increasing demand for remote and hybrid work. Don’t get left behind – to enable your organisation to thrive and meet the changing nature of our work and environment, your people need to be equipped with the right skills and able to work in a way that’s beneficial to them and the business.
To help bring in and hold on to the best people, we also need to keep our focus on the gender pay gap, which continues to have some concerning movement, a detraction from some of last year’s positive gains. The largest pay gap in this year’s report is in CAD / drawing operations supervisor / manager (13%) and digital specialist – all levels (13%) – where men continue to be paid significantly more than women. However, at the senior manager level, women are now paid 6% more than men, whereas historically men held a slight pay advantage (men were paid 1% more in 2024). We encourage you to look at gender pay gaps in your firms, investigate why these are still present, and act where possible.
Women’s overall representation in leadership has remained steady, but the number of women in senior leadership roles has declined by nearly 5% from last year. Despite this disappointing reduction, there is an increasing number of women in people leadership (which has a much larger volume than senior leadership). This may signal progress in building a robust leadership pipeline, with more women advancing and being retained at mid to senior level. Check out The Diversity Agenda for news, events and resources to help you build on this encouraging progress and stay focused on the retention of women within organisations.
We invite you to use this summary report as a strategic resource to enhance employee recognition, engagement, and satisfaction in today’s challenging and competitive market. And, if you’re looking for further support and guidance in these areas, check out our comprehensive member-only resources and programmes. These include Mindspace, our initiative for promoting mentally healthy workplaces, providing essential tools and resources for cultivating a thriving work environment, and The Pillars Competency Framework, which highlights the key non-technical skills and competencies necessary for success in professional services consulting. We also offer templated policies on our website to help you establish sound business practices, for example a flexible working policy, return from parental leave policy, and time off in lieu policy.
For any member firm that wants the full report, the best way to get this is to participate in our Strategic Pay survey next year – participating firms get access to all the data. If your firm didn’t participate and you’re still interested in a copy of this year’s report, please get in touch.
Read the 2025 Remuneration Survey summary report
- Read the full summary of the report here (you’ll need an ACE member log-in)
Want to buy a copy of the full report?
- If you’re an ACE member that didn’t participate in the survey and you’d like to buy a copy of this year’s full report, email us at letstalk@ace.org.nz.
Watch the webinar
- Watch the webinar with Strategic Pay about what we can learn from the 2025 Remuneration Survey.