$18 an hour?

The NZ Herald’s frontpage (story not online) declares junior doctors are getting $18 an hour for a 65-hour week.

Now I can’t see how this adds up. The junior doctor quoted an annual salary of $105,000 a year. At $18 an hour this would equate to 5,833 hours which is 112 hours a week. Not 65. Now sure you can work a 112 hour week (I have) but not over a whole year.

Specific examples are given of working a 65 hour week and a 175 hour fortnight. A 65 hour week is a pay rate of $30.98 an hour and a 175 hour fortnight is $21.37 an hour.

So I can’t see how they get their headline of “$18 an hour for 65-hour week”. That would be a salary of $61,007 not $105,000.

I should note that I actually support the young doctors in their cause. No-one should be working 175 hour fortnights in a hospital, and even a pay rate of $31 an hour is pretty lame for their training.

But if you are going to assert a calculation in a headline, it should be real.