The councils we elect this weekend will each take charge of significantly different places. The incomes of residents is one big difference.

TOP OF THE TREE

You can't beat Wellington on payday: its workers have the country's highest median incomes.



Between the censuses of 2006 and 2013, the median household income in the city soared 22.78 per cent, from $74,200 to $91,100, with the average worker earning $37,900.



The political capital is dominated by white collar workers.



In 2013, it had the country's highest percentage of business, human resources, and marketing professionals (11.96 per cent of Wellington workers), ICT professionals (6.43 per cent), legal, social, and welfare professionals (3.97 per cent), and personal assistants and secretaries (1.53 per cent).



Another 9.81 per cent of Wellington workers were "specialist managers", and 4.15 per cent were chief executives, general managers and legislators.

STUFF Incomes in Wellington are boosted by the high proportion of professionals.

Being the home of government gives the city an advantage: In 2015, 41.1 per cent of the country's 45,348 state servants were based in the capital, earning an average $47,469 for a contact centre worker, $124,388 for a manager, or $410,000 for a chief executive.

However, Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency chief executive Chris Whelan says it's not all thanks to Parliament.

"We have a highly-educated workforce, and a high proportion of jobs in knowledge-intensive industries ... Wellingtonians generate almost a quarter of the country's GDP in the tech sector, the creative sector and the financial and insurance sector."



BOTTOM OF THE HEAP



Six hours' drive north, in the Bay of Plenty town of Kawerau, households are earning just 40 per cent of what the capital's getting.



Over the same seven-year period, household incomes rose just 5.07 per cent, from an average $35,500 to $37,300 - the lowest increase in the country, and well below the national average of $63,800.

Kawerau is a blue collar forestry town facing tough times.

It has the country's highest percentage of automotive and engineering trades workers (6.02 per cent) and machine and stationary plant operators (7.48 per cent), as well as the greatest chunk of carers and aides (7.12 per cent).

In 2012, one-fifth of its residents were on a benefit. Later that year, the Tasman pulp and paper mill - long part of the town's lifeline - was downsized, putting another 100 people out of work.



MIDDLE OF THE PACK



Auckland workers trailed Wellington with a median personal income of $29,600, and a median household income of $76,500, up 20.66 per cent from $63,400 in 2006.



Dunedin workers were the worst off of the country's main centres: their median personal income was $23,300 - less than two-thirds of that of Wellingtonians - and the median household income was $54,400



However, household incomes had risen 25.35 per cent since 2006, above the national average increase of 24.12 per cent.

PETER MEECHAM/STUFF The Norske Skog Tasman Pulp and paper Mill remains a large employer in struggling Kawerau.

BIG MOVERS

The biggest income shifts came from well outside the main centres - but neither was truly a success story.

Buller District, on the West Coast, leads the pack: its median household income rose a whopping 66.77 per cent, from $31,900 to $53,200.

At the time of the census, the region's dominant industry - mining - was booming, with more mobile plant operators (2.88 per cent of workers), road and rail drivers (4.51 per cent), and construction and mining labourers (3.45 per cent) than any other region.

However, its fortunes have since taken a turn for the worse.

"We have had multiple mine closures and an economic downturn which has meant a lot of job losses and redundancies here on the coast, and a decline in population as people move away to find work elsewhere," the council's chief executive Andy Gowland-Douglas said.

Cement giant Holcim, another major employer, closed its Westport plant in June.

The Chatham Islands saw the second-biggest change, with its household incomes rising 52.27 per cent from $44,000 to $67,000.

However, with a continually dwindling population - now, just 600 - the arrival or departure of just one family or business could wildly manipulate the numbers.

WHY THE GAP BETWEEN REGIONS?

The gulf between pay depends on several factors: job type, location and hours of work.

Dunedin's reputation as the student capital is also what's keeping its incomes low. Its city council said it's not a matter of what jobs they're doing, but how many hours they're doing them.

The city has more part time workers than many other parts the country: in 2013, 44 per cent of people in Dunedin worked fewer than 40 hours per week, above the national average of 35 per cent.

People aged under 25 made up 16.4 per cent of Dunedin's workforce, compared to 13.7 per cent nationally, the council said. Its 10-year economic development strategy included goals to create 10,000 more jobs, and lift incomes by 2.5 per cent by 2023.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Kiwi earners are very much at the mercy of the market: while urban areas are thriving, those reliant on forestry and coal are victims of the economic downturn.

However, ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley says most of the towns and cities at the lower end "still have some strong growth drivers - particularly dairy, tourism, the broader agricultural sector - which, when you're getting outside of the main urban areas, are important drivers".

"There still are some regions which are being affected, in the sense of incomes aren't growing quite as strongly, where they're maybe facing continued challenges of not necessarily having a distinct, strong driver that's helped propel things along."

Councils can play a part through their own economic development strategies, but there is little hard evidence about what actually helps.

Overall, though, it's good news that every part of the country saw average income rise over the seven-year period.

"There doesn't seem to be any hard and fast rule about who's gained the strongest and who hasn't, in the sense that you've got quite a spread in terms of which regions have done well and which haven't, which I think is encouraging," Tuffley said.

Comments have been closed on this story.