Average Salary in Australia (2026)

Average Australian wage: the headline figures

Different official surveys measure different things. Here are the latest releases as at October 2026.

Average vs median: which one describes a typical salary?

For "what does a normal worker earn", use the median. It is the middle earner, so a small number of very high incomes cannot pull it up. In August 2025 the median employee earned $1,425 a week in their main job, up 1.9% on a year earlier. The median full-time employee earned $1,741. Averages sit higher. The ABS Employee Earnings and Hours survey for May 2025 found average weekly total cash earnings of $1,611.10 for all employees, against a median of $1,436.

Use AWOTE (average weekly ordinary time earnings) when you want to compare full-time pay over time. It excludes part-time workers, juniors and overtime. The "all employees" figure of $1,579.20 is lower because about 4 in 10 employees work part-time. In the May 2025 survey, 41.3% of employees were part-time.

Average Australian income according to the ATO

Tax return data covers every source of income, not only wages. The ATO's Taxation statistics 2023–24, published 17 June 2026, report:

• Average taxable income: $78,127 (median $58,739). Men averaged $90,221 and women $65,833.
• Salary or wages declared on returns: average $76,686, median $65,046, across 13,155,343 people.
• These figures are for the 2023–24 income year. The ATO publishes them about two years after the year ends, so they lag the ABS by about two years.

Average salary by state and the average salary in Sydney

The ACT has the highest full-time average earnings and Tasmania the lowest. For Sydney specifically, the ABS reports that median weekly earnings in August 2025 were $1,500 in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, the highest of the capital cities, and $1,400 in Melbourne and Hobart. $1,500 a week is about $78,000 a year. The ABS does not publish AWOTE for Sydney alone. The NSW full-time average was $2,108.80 a week in May 2026.

Average salary after tax in 2026–27

Here is what each figure leaves in your pocket after 2026–27 income tax, LITO and the Medicare levy. The figures assume a resident with no HELP debt, no deductions and private hospital cover. Employer super of 12% is paid on top and is not included in the take-home amount.

Industry and gender differences

Industry matters more than location. In May 2026, full-time adults in mining averaged $3,224.20 a week, and those in accommodation and food services averaged $1,509.90. By sector, full-time AWOTE was $2,399.30 for men and $2,154.00 for women in the public sector, and $2,139.50 and $1,840.80 in the private sector (seasonally adjusted).

At the bottom of the scale, the national minimum wage from 1 July 2026 is $1,004.90 a week ($26.44 an hour), about $52,255 a year for a full-time adult. Many award rates are higher.

How Australian earnings have grown since 2020

The ABS Employee earnings release shows median weekly earnings in a main job rising from $1,150 in August 2020 to $1,425 in August 2025, about 24% over five years. Gender gaps remain in the medians: in August 2025 full-time men earned $1,841 a week and full-time women $1,631. Women's median earnings grew faster than men's over that year (4.2% against 1.4% for all employees).

Hourly figures help part-time and casual workers compare. Median hourly earnings in a main job were $42.90 in August 2025. In the May 2025 Employee Earnings and Hours survey, managers ($69.20) and professionals ($64.50) had the highest average hourly earnings. Pay was most often set by individual arrangement (38.5% of employees), followed by collective agreement (34.6%).

Which ABS release will update next?

Average Weekly Earnings is published twice a year. The November 2026 figures are scheduled for release on 25 February 2027 and the May 2027 figures on 19 August 2027. The August 2025 Employee earnings release was the last one from the Characteristics of Employment survey in its current form. The ABS is moving that content to a redesigned monthly supplementary survey from the second half of 2026, with data compiled on a calendar-year basis. The next state and city medians may therefore look slightly different in their timing and detail.

How to compare your own salary fairly

• Compare like with like. If you work full-time, compare with the full-time median or AWOTE, not the all-employee figures.
• Check whether a quoted salary includes super. A "package" that includes the 12% super guarantee is not comparable with a base salary that has super paid on top.
• Use gross figures for comparisons and take-home figures for budgets. Our salary calculator converts between the two.
• Watch the date. Full-time ordinary time earnings grew 3.7% in the year to May 2026, so a 2024 figure quoted today is already out of date.