The average salary in Australia (2026)

Average and median measure different things

Two of the figures above are averages and two are medians, and that distinction accounts for part of the gap between them.

The average adds up everyone's earnings and divides by the number of people. The median is the middle value when earnings are lined up from lowest to highest.

Take a team of ten where nine people earn $60,000 and one earns $600,000. The average comes out at $114,000, more than nine of the ten people earn. The median is $60,000, which describes nine of them accurately. If earnings in that same team ran evenly from $70,000 to $115,000 instead, the average and the median would both land near $92,000, and either one would be a reasonable summary.

So the gap between an average and a median tells you something about how evenly pay is spread, not just how high it is. Across a whole country, earnings are uneven enough that the average sits above the median, which is why the headline figure is higher than what most people are paid.

What each figure counts

The measures in the table aren't competing estimates of the same thing. Most of the distance between them comes down to who is included.

The average weekly earnings figure covers full-time adults and their ordinary hours. The two medians come from a different ABS collection: one for full-time employees, and one for everyone in a job, which brings part-time and casual work into the count and pulls the middle value down.

Taxable income is a different thing again, because it isn't a salary. Say a surgeon earns around $203,000 from the job itself, which is the median for surgeons working full time. If they also rent out two investment properties and hold a share portfolio, the rental income and the dividends go on the same tax return, so the taxable income might come to $280,000 while the salary hasn't changed. The same thing happens on a smaller scale to anyone with a rental, some shares or a bit of freelance work.

The ATO median runs lower than the rest for a separate reason: it counts everyone who lodged a return. That includes people who worked part of the year, students with a few shifts a week, and retirees with a small income, none of whom are describing what a job pays.

What does your job pay

A national figure gives you context rather than a benchmark, because it isn't measuring any job in particular. Pay for your own occupation is a more useful place to start.

Look up your role below for the median full-time salary, how many people do it, and where the figure comes from.

An occupational median describes the middle of a group, so it can tell you what is normal for the job without telling you what your own work is worth. Experience, specialisation, employer size and the responsibilities attached to your particular role all move the figure, and two people with the same job title can be doing quite different work.

If you're using the figure to prepare for a pay conversation, it helps to compare roles with similar responsibilities rather than matching on title alone, and to note how your own work has changed since your pay was last set. How to ask for a pay rise goes through preparing that case.

How pay varies by state

Across the states and territories, average full-time earnings run from about $96,000 in Tasmania to about $119,000 in the Australian Capital Territory. Every figure on the map is the same measure as the national headline, so the rows can be read against each other.

The mix of industries and occupations differs from one state to another, so a state average describes the work being done there rather than the going rate for any single job. It won't tell you what a move would do to your own pay.

How pay varies by industry

Industry makes a larger difference than geography. These are median weekly earnings for everyone working in the industry, so they reflect the hours people work as well as the rates they're paid.

Accommodation and food services sits at the bottom of that list partly because a large share of the work is part time, and a median across all employees counts a Saturday shift alongside a full-time week. If you're weighing up a move between industries, compare full-time rates for the job you'd actually be doing rather than these whole-industry medians.

What a salary figure includes

Every figure on this page is before tax. The ABS earnings measures also leave out employer super, anything you salary sacrifice, and overtime. They do include penalty rates, shift allowances, commissions and bonuses paid within the period, though not irregular payments such as an annual bonus.

That matters when you compare a national figure with your own pay, because the comparison only works if you use your gross salary rather than what arrives in your account.

It matters again when you read a job ad, where the same number can mean three different things.

• $90,000 plus super. Your employer adds the 12% super guarantee on top, so the total cost of employing you is $100,800.
• $90,000 package. The super sits inside the number, so the base salary is closer to $80,400.
• $90,000 total remuneration. Usually a package, sometimes with a bonus or other benefits counted in as well. It's worth asking for the breakdown.

Between the first two there is around $9,600 of base salary riding on the wording, so it's worth checking which one an advertised figure means before you compare it with what you earn now.

The ABS earnings releases publish the national figures in full, with the definitions, if you want to check any of this yourself.