The average salary in Australia (2026)

Why the average is higher than most people earn

An average adds everyone's pay together and divides it by the number of people. A median is the person in the middle when everyone's pay is lined up from lowest to highest.

The two drift apart when a few people earn far more than everyone else. Picture a team of ten where nine people earn $60,000 and the manager earns $600,000. The average comes to $114,000, which is more than nine of the ten are paid. The median is $60,000, which is what nearly everyone on the team actually earns.

Pay across Australia works in a similar way. A smaller group of high earners lifts the average, so the median is usually the better guide to what's typical. That's why the median full-time salary, about $90,500, sits well below the average of $108,400.

Which figure to compare with your pay

The figures in the table also count different people, which explains most of the gap between them. The one to use depends on how you work.

• If you work full time, compare your salary with the full-time figures: the average of about $108,400 or the median of about $90,500.
• If you work part time or casually, the all-employees median of about $74,100 includes people working hours like yours. It's lower because it counts every job, from a few shifts a week to a full-time role.
• The ATO's median taxable income of $58,739 is the lowest because it counts everyone who lodged a tax return, including students, retirees and people who only worked for part of the year. It isn't a salary either, because taxable income includes things like rent from an investment property and share dividends, less any deductions.

Whichever one you use, compare it with your pay before tax, because all of these figures are gross.

What does your job pay

A national figure covers every kind of job at once, so it can only tell you so much about yours. The median for your own occupation is a much closer comparison. Search for your job below to see its median full-time salary and how many people work in it.

Treat an occupation's median as the middle of the range for that job, not a price on your own work. Experience, specialist skills, the size of the employer and what your role actually involves can all put you above or below it, and two people with the same job title can be doing quite different work.

If you're getting ready to ask for more, compare yourself with people doing similar work, not only people with the same title, and note how your role has grown since your pay was last set. Our guide on how to ask for a pay rise walks through putting that case together.

How pay varies by state

Average full-time pay ranges from about $96,000 a year in Tasmania to about $119,000 in the ACT. The map uses the same measure as the national figure, so you can compare the states with each other and with the national average.

A higher state average doesn't mean the same job pays more there. Each state has a different mix of industries and jobs, so its average tells you about the work done there, not what a move would do to your own pay.

How pay varies by industry

The table shows median pay in every industry, as a yearly figure. The first column counts full-time employees only, so it's the closer comparison if you work full time. The second counts everyone with a job in that industry, part time and casual included, which is why hospitality and retail drop furthest between the two columns: many people in those industries work part-time hours.

If you're thinking about changing industries, look up the pay for the job you'd be doing there. A whole-industry median mixes every kind of role together, from entry-level jobs to senior ones.

What a salary figure includes

All the figures on this page are before tax, and none of them include the super your employer pays on top. Salary you sacrifice into super is left out too. The average weekly earnings figure counts ordinary hours only, so it doesn't include overtime. Penalty rates, shift allowances, commissions and bonuses paid in the period are counted, but one-off payments such as an annual bonus aren't.

Job ads can also describe the same salary in different ways, so it's worth checking which one you're looking at.

• $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 is 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. Ask for the breakdown.

There's about $9,600 a year of base salary between the first two, so check which one an ad means before you compare it with what you earn now. The salary calculator shows what a salary is worth after tax, super and HELP repayments.