Australians earning less than six-figures are now below-average income earners during a cost-of-living crisis.
The average, full-time salary without bonuses and overtime stood at $100,017 in May, with four in ten sectors now having pay levels typically in the six-figure range based on new Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
Mining was the highest paid with an average pay of $156,796 and was one of seven out of 17 sectors to have average pay levels in the six figures.
The others included IT, media and telecommunications ($126,734), finance and insurance ($118,726), professional, scientific and technical services ($116,761), electricity, waste, water and gas ($116,678), public administration safety covering the likes of police officers ($105,877), and education typically including teachers ($105,373).
The healthcare and social assistance category, covering aged care workers, wasn’t far behind with an equivalent average salary of $98,925, making them even better paid than construction workers and labourers on $94,734.
This occurred after age care workers received a 15 per cent pay boost in July 2023, with the Labor government putting in $11billion over four years to make it happen.
Healthcare, traditionally a lower-paid sector, has also had a boost from high salaries in the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Accommodation and food services covering hospitality workers had the lowest, average pay of $73,892, below retail trade on $75,634.
Australians earning less than six-figures are now below-average income earners during a cost-of-living crisis
Both were well above the full, time minimum wage of $47,627 but those figures include managers, bringing up the average.
The typical Australian worker is now earning more than $100,000 a year for the first time ever.
This individual can now borrow $520,087 which means being able to buy a $650,109 home with a 20 per cent mortgage deposit.
That average worker can buy a median-priced apartment on their own in every major capital city except Sydney but the mid-priced house is out of range, unless they went to Darwin or an outer suburb of Hobart.
Australia’s unemployment rate in July rose to a two-year high of 4.2 per cent with 23,900 losing their jobs last month in another sign the Reserve Bank’s aggressive interest rates are slowing the economy.
The ranks of Australia’s unemployed swelled to 637,100, the highest number since October 2021 when Sydney and Melbourne were both still in lockdown.
Almost three years on from those lockdowns, Victoria had Australia’s highest unemployment rate of 4.6 per cent while Western Australia had the lowest at 3.7 per cent.
The healthcare and social assistance category, covering aged care workers, wasn’t far behind with an equivalent average salary of $98,925, making them even better paid than construction workers and labourers on $94,734
Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock last week declared there would be no rate cut within the next six months but Commonwealth Bank senior economist Belinda Allen said worsening unemployment would force the RBA to cut rates before Christmas from an existing 12-year high of 4.35 per cent.
‘We still maintain our central case scenario for a November start date for the first interest rate cut from the RBA,’ she said.
‘But we are growing uneasy, given the shortening runway to achieve the data configuration required for the RBA to feel comfortable cutting the cash rate, especially after today’s employment print.’
Across the labour market, wages grew by 4.1 per cent during the last financial year, which was barely higher than the 3.8 per cent inflation rate.
Weak real wages growth, adjusted for inflation, is occurring as Australia continues to receive a large intake of new migrants.
During the last financial year, 469,140 migrants on a net basis moved to Australia with this figure including the permanent intake of skilled migrants and the long-term influx of international students.
Australia still had a tight rental vacancy rate of 1.3 per cent in July with strong population growth leading to more competition for accommodation, SQM Research data showed.
Mining-rich Perth, which receives a bigger influx of interstate migration, had an even tighter rental vacancy rate of 0.8 per cent.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk