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You may have a natural curiosity to find out how you fare against others in financial terms. The good news for Australians is that according to the World Bank, our average salary is ranked as the 12th highest in the world coming in just under Sweden and Singapore. This already puts the average working Australian in the global top 1% in terms of earnings.
When comparing your financial position against others, salary is one measure you can look at. Whilst salary doesn’t always correlate directly with wealth, it can be a pretty good indicator and certainly the main income stream for most working people. The Australian Bureau of Statistics publish information on this topic each year which contains a lot of interesting insights and is worth a read. Here are some of the highlights from the 2022 data in regards to your salary.
The average salary in Australia for all workers (part time and full time) has increased 3.8% this year bringing the average figure to $69,102 per year (or $1,209 per week). However the average salary can change drastically depending on various factor such as your age, industry, sex and location. When looking at only full time workers for example, the average salary jumps to almost $91,000 per year (or $1748.40 per week)!
Wages in Australia have been increasing steadily over the past decade (except for a slight hiccup in 2020 due to COVID). Over the past 10 years we’ve seen a 30% increase in the average salary, however the gap between male and female salaries doesn’t appear to be closing very quickly with a 12.5% difference in today’s numbers.
It’s also worth noting that there are some ultra-high salaries in Australia which skew the average. So really, perhaps we should be looking at the median salary rather than the average when comparing ourselves against the rest of the population. The median salary is a measure of the midpoint salary in the population rather than the average across all workers. Another way to look at this is that 50% of people earn less than this figure and 50% earn more. The current median salary in Australia is $62,868 per year (or $1,209 per week) which is about $6,000 less than the average. Feeling better as you read on?
The average salary varies depending on which age group you look at. Typically as you gain more experience in a field, you tend to earn more money. So it makes sense when comparing your salary to compare against your age group to see how you fit.
Let’s take a look at the average earnings per age group.
You can see that the average salary increases with age up until the 45 to 54 group where it reaches its peak. So if you’re in your 20’s, there’s a big difference between the average salary for all workers vs the average salary for your age group.
The ABS also provide salary data grouped by percentiles which we can break down by age to see where you rank in the population of working people.
As an example, someone aged 35-45 earning $150,000 per year would be earning more than 90% of people for their age. To rank in the top 1%, you would need to earn over $350,000 per year.
Income and salary are different things. Salary is the measure of what an employee earns from their work. Income on the other hand looks at this plus other income streams like interest earnings, rental income, dividends, etc. According to the ATO data from the 2018-2019 tax year, the average working Australian declares an extra $2,000 of additional income on top of their salary. If we then look at the ATO’s data for deductions, the average working Australian claims almost $2,500 in deductions so overall it would appear that there isn’t too much difference between the average income and average salary figures. When looking at higher earning groups though, the difference becomes more distinct.
To work this out, you can take your total taxable income from your last tax return and see which percentile you fall into.
This is break down of the single percentile groups based on data from the ATO so you can get a better estimate of where you rank in the population. Income levels rise gradually until you get to around the 80th percentile where the curve starts to steepen quickly. The good news here is that to move up a single percentile (for most people), is not actually a big jump in income. In some cases as little as an extra $1,000 a year can move you 1 percent higher. Since the ABS states that their data is based on over 11 million working Australian’s, each 1 percent counts for approximately 110,000 people.
The Australian Taxation Office also provides some interesting statistics on the attributes of earners based on tax returns. Here’s the list of suburbs where the highest earners live:
| Rank | Suburb | Average taxable income | Median taxable income |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Double Bay (NSW) | $202,541 | $74,506 |
| 2 | Hawksburn, Toorak (VIC) | $201,926 | $71,574 |
| 3 | Darling Point, Edgecliff, HMAS Rushcutters, Point Piper (NSW) | $199,842 | $78,832 |
| 4 | Dover Heights, HMAS Watson, Rose Bay North, Vaucluse, Watsons Bay (NSW) | $197,906 | $71,593 |
| 5 | Woollahra (NSW) | $183,417 | $74,121 |
| 6 | Cottesloe, Peppermint Grove (WA) | $179,403 | $76,381 |
| 7 | Portsea (VIC) | $175,356 | $62,949 |
| 8 | Bellevue Hill (NSW) | $173,287 | $75,151 |
| 9 | Mosman, Spit Junction (NSW) | $171,144 | $73,503 |
| 10 | Northbridge (NSW) | $168,940 | $72,779 |
Source: Australian Taxation Office (2018 - 2019 data)
New South Wales takes most of the top 10 spots in the list with Double Bay topping the list. There’s also a big difference between the average and median salaries in these suburbs.
| Rank | Suburb | Average taxable income | Average salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Surgeon | $394,303 | $208,462 |
| 2 | Anaesthetist | $386,065 | $244,529 |
| 3 | Internal Medicine Specialist | $304,752 | $210,331 |
| 4 | Financial Dealer | $275,984 | $237,946 |
| 5 | Psychiatrist | $235,558 | $190,103 |
| 6 | Other Medical Practitioners | $222,933 | $172,670 |
| 7 | Judicial or Other Legal Professionals | $188,798 | $164,302 |
| 8 | Mining Engineer | $184,507 | $169,818 |
| 9 | CEO or Managing Director | $164,896 | $108,285 |
| 10 | Engineering Manager | $159,940 | $146,894 |
Source: Australian Taxation Office (2018 - 2019 data)
In the top 10 list of occupations that earn the highest salaries, the top spots are mostly dominated by medical practitioners with Surgeons coming out on top. When comparing the average salary against taxable income, it’s clear that many of these higher income earning workers also compliment their earnings with other income streams.
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