Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia

Latest release

Includes earnings and hours statistics for characteristics such as industry, occupation, sex, age, full-time/part-time, and method of setting pay

Reference period
May 2023

Key statistics

  • Median weekly earnings were $1,300.00 for all employees, $1,509.00 for males and $1,130.00 for females.
  • Occupations with the highest hourly earnings were Managers ($67.20) and Professionals ($60.60).
  • Individual arrangement was the most common method of setting pay (38.7%), followed by collective agreement (34.0%).

Additional data has been released on the use of restraint clauses in Australia. This content is published in the article Restraint Clauses, Australia, 2023.

All employees, average weekly total cash earnings, number of employees and proportion of employees - sex by employment status (a)
 Average weekly total cash earnings ($)Number of employees ('000)Proportion of employees (%)
Full-time males2,074.204,526.035.9
Part-time males758.701,596.112.7
All males1,731.206,122.148.6
Full-time females1,814.902,884.022.9
Part-time females816.603,587.128.5
All females1,261.506,471.051.4
Full-time persons1,973.307,410.058.8
Part-time persons798.705,183.241.2
All persons1,489.8012,593.1100.0
  1. May not sum to totals due to rounding

Available populations

All employees

  • Provides estimates based on every employee in scope for the survey. This covers both managerial (including owner managers of incorporated enterprises) and non-managerial employees.
  • This population is useful for high level analysis of employee earnings and hours data by all major classifications.
     

Non-managerial employees

  • Excludes owner mangers of incorporated enterprises and managerial employees who have strategic responsibilities in the conduct or operations of the organisation and/or are in charge of a significant number of employees. 
  • This population has a direct link between employee earnings and hours paid for and can be used to analyse hourly rates.
     

Full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate

  • Provides a relatively homogenous employee population.
  • This population excludes part-time employees, managerial employees (including owner managers of incorporated enterprises) and those not paid at the adult rate. As a result, it removes many employees with unusually high or low earnings from the population of interest. Removing these extreme values can be useful when comparing pay rates between occupations or when analysing the gender wage gap (particularly for weekly earnings).

Gender pay gap guide

To learn more about different measures of the gender pay gap, see our Gender pay gap guide. It provides summary information on the gender pay gap, the key contributing factors, and the ABS' recommended indicators.

Industry

Non-managerial employees, average weekly total hours paid for, average hourly total cash earnings - industry
 Average weekly total hours paid for (hours)Average hourly total cash earnings ($)
Mining42.569.10
Manufacturing37.540.80
Electricity, gas, water and waste services39.257.30
Construction38.445.00
Wholesale trade35.542.50
Retail trade25.331.40
Accommodation and food services22.829.10
Transport, postal and warehousing37.943.80
Information media and telecommunications34.956.60
Finance and insurance services34.751.50
Rental, hiring and real estate services34.541.00
Professional, scientific and technical services33.953.00
Administrative and support services30.540.40
Public administration and safety34.650.20
Education and training27.051.60
Health care and social assistance27.947.20
Arts and recreation services23.937.60
Other services29.835.10
All industries31.044.00

State

Sector

Occupation

All employees, number of employees, average weekly total cash earnings - occupation
 Number of employees ('000)Average weekly total cash earnings ($)
Managers1,068.02,712.40
Professionals3,030.01,954.00
Technicians and trades workers1,451.11,614.20
Community and personal service workers1,763.6953.10
Clerical and administrative workers1,900.91,238.90
Sales workers1,390.3785.40
Machinery operators and drivers724.11,631.00
Labourers1,265.01,022.00
All occupations12,593.11,489.80
Non-managerial employees, average weekly total hours paid for, average hourly total cash earnings - occupation
 Average weekly total hours paid for (hours)Average hourly total cash earnings ($)
Managers36.867.20
Professionals32.260.60
Technicians and trades workers37.742.00
Community and personal service workers25.036.80
Clerical and administrative workers31.339.00
Sales workers23.830.90
Machinery operators and drivers39.440.30
Labourers29.832.20
All occupations31.044.00

Method of setting pay

(a) Data for 2016 is based on indicative comparable estimate proportions. For further information, see Appendix 1 in the 2018 Feature Article.

Data downloads

Data cube 1. All employees

Number of employees, average weekly total cash earnings, average age - rate of pay and age category: by employment status by sex, type of employee by sex, occupation, industry, states and territories, sector, employer size

Data cube 2. All employees

Number of employees, average weekly total cash earnings, average age - method of setting pay: by employment status by sex, type of employee by sex, occupation, industry, states and territories, sector, employer size

Data cube 3. All employees

Distribution, deciles and quartiles of weekly total cash earnings - age category, method of setting pay, employment status, type of employee, occupation by sex, industry, sector, states and territories

Data cube 4. Non-managerial employees

Number of employees, average weekly total cash earnings, average weekly total hours paid for, average hourly total cash earnings - rate of pay and age category: by employment status by sex, type of employee and status by sex, occupation, industry, states and territories, sector, employer size

Data cube 5. Non-managerial employees

Number of employees, average weekly total cash earnings, average weekly total hours paid for, average hourly total cash earnings - method of setting pay: by employment status by sex, type of employee and status by sex, occupation, industry, states and territories, sector, employer size

Data cube 6. Full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate

Number of employees, average weekly total cash earnings, average weekly total hours paid for, average hourly total cash earnings - age category: by type of employee by sex, occupation, industry, states and territories, sector, employer size

Data cube 7. Full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate

Number of employees, average weekly total cash earnings, average weekly total hours paid for, average hourly total cash earnings - method of setting pay: by type of employee by sex, occupation, industry, states and territories, sector, employer size

Data cube 8. Full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate

Distribution, deciles and quartiles of weekly total cash earnings - age category, method of setting pay, type of employee, occupation by sex, industry, sector, states and territories

Data cube 9. All employees

Number of employees, average weekly total cash earnings - method of setting pay: by age category

Data cube 10. All employees

Number of employees, average weekly total cash earnings - rate of pay: by age category

Data cube 11. All employees

Average weekly total cash earnings, average age - sex: by detailed occupation (ANZSCO 4 digit)

Data cube 12. All employees

Average weekly total cash earnings, average age - method of setting pay: by detailed occupation (ANZSCO 4 digit)

Data cube 13. Full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate

Average weekly ordinary time and total cash earnings, average weekly ordinary time and total hours paid for, average hourly ordinary time and total cash earnings - sex: by detailed occupation (ANZSCO 3 digit)

Data cube 14. Full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate

Average weekly ordinary time and total cash earnings, average weekly ordinary time and total hours paid for, average hourly ordinary time and total cash earnings - method of setting pay: by detailed occupation (ANZSCO 3 digit)

Data cube 15. Full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate

Average weekly ordinary time and total cash earnings, average weekly ordinary time and total hours paid for, average hourly ordinary time and total cash earnings - sex: by industry sub-division (ANZSIC 2 digit)

All data cubes

Restraint clauses

Given the increasing interest in understanding employment conditions and arrangements in Australia, the ABS has produced new experimental data on the use of restraint clauses in employment contracts. It can be found in Restraint Clauses, Australia, 2023.

Information was collected from employers on their use of restraint clauses relating to Non-disclosure, Non-compete, Non-solicitation of clients, and Non-solicitation of co-workers. This was collected through a short follow-up survey of employers responding to the 2023 Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours.

In 2023, 46.9% of Australian businesses reported that they had used at least one type of restraint clause.

Non-disclosure clauses were the most common type of restraint clause, used by 45.3% of employers, followed by:

  • Non-solicitation of clients (25.4%)
  • Non-compete (20.8%)
  • Non-solicitation of co-workers (18.0%)

Post release changes

21/02/2024

Distributional, decile and quartile data for States and territories added to Employee Earnings and Hours data cubes 3 and 8. See Data downloads section.

Data on restraint clauses added. This information was collected through the Short Survey of Employment Conditions, a follow-up survey of employers responding to the 2023 Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours.

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6306.0.

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