Annual growth in total wages paid steady over two years
Employers paid $107.4 billion in total wages and salaries in December 2025, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said: ‘The total wages and salaries paid in December 2025 is 5.7 per cent higher than in December 2024, which matches the previous year’s annual growth seen to December 2024.
‘The annual rise of 5.7 per cent seen in both December 2024 and 2025 is lower than the 7.2 per cent annual rise to December 2023, which included post-pandemic growth.’
Annual growth includes the combined effects of changes over the year from underlying wage and employment growth, hours worked, and periodic payments.
Employee jobs provide new insights into wages and salaries
‘This release includes a new measure called employee jobs, which shows the number of employees who received wages and salaries each month,’ Mr Crick said.
‘Employee jobs allow us to better understand month movements in total wages and salaries.
‘For example, in the three months to December 2025, total wages and salaries fell by 0.9 per cent or $1.0 billion after bonuses paid in September.
‘Over the same period, the new employee jobs measure contributed a smaller fall of 0.3 per cent.’
Find more information about the new employee jobs measure in Monthly employee jobs: New insights on wages and salaries growth.
The ABS acknowledges the continued support of the ATO in enabling the ABS to produce insights into the Australian labour market from Single Touch Payroll data.
Media notes
- Find more information about the Monthly Employee Earnings Indicator and its measures on our methodology page.
- The aggregate total and wages and salaries estimates provided in this release complements but is different to the measure of underlying wage growth reported in the ABS’ Wage Price Index.
- To learn more about our different labour measures, their purpose and how to use them, see our guide to Labour statistics. It provides summary information on labour market topics including Industry employment and Earnings data.
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