Telnet, New Zealand's largest privately owned call centre, has said the transtasman wage gap is an advantage when winning business in Australia.

Lower wage and exchange rates makes New Zealand an attractive prospect to Australian businesses, the company said, and companies should "play to their strengths".  The company has more than 200 employees based in Queen St.

Telnet chief executive John Chetwynd said the lower wage rates in New Zealand create more jobs and profit. 

"And for the Government that means less unemployment benefits and more tax revenue."

He said being the poorer cousin did not mean such "cost saving competitive advantages" should not be marketed.

Mr Chetwynd said the majority of Telnet management had worked their way up from the call centre, meaning the wage gap could be closed as employees rose through the ranks.

The release stated that Telnet customers in Australia were saved approximately 35% of their bill by lower wage and exhange rates, of which 15% was labour savings and 20% in the exchange rate differential.

"Companies need to analyse where they sit in the international marketplace and focus on that, rather than crying over what once was or should be."

Chief executive of the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) Paul Brislen said while being a low wage economy meant you could attract overseas business, New Zealanders and the country as a whole earned less.

"I'd rather we move up the food chain and become a place that pays more so we can attract those high-paying jobs, and job seekers, and catch up with, or overtake, Australia."

Mr Brislen pointed to New Zealander of the Year Sir Paul Callaghan's recent interview with the Herald in which Sir Callaghan advocated investing in the New Zealand technology sector, rather than the lower earning industries, as the way to close the wage gap. 

Many technology companies in New Zealand well above the annual revenue needed to match Australia, Sir Callaghan said.