Average wage climbs to $81,619

THE average Australian worker received a pay rise of nearly $1900 in 2017, lifting the annual wage to $81,619.

That’s a 2.4 per cent pay increase but once adjusted for inflation it’s a rise of just 0.5 per cent. Little wonder why people complain about the cost of living.

The latest six-monthly average weekly earnings figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics tends to be more volatile than the wage price index, which was released on Wednesday and is the Reserve Bank’s preferred measure of wages growth for gauging interest rate policy.

But yesterday’s report does express outcomes in dollar terms for different industries so people can see how well, or badly, they are doing. Top earners in 2017 were the average miner on a salary of $134,196, although they received an annual rise of only 0.3 per cent last year compared with an inflation rate of 1.9 per cent.

At the other end of the scale, accommodation and food services employees drew a salary of $57,870 on average.