Average weekly earnings surpass $2,000 for first time
Average weekly ordinary time earnings for full-time adults were $2,010.00 in May 2025, according to new seasonally adjusted figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said: ‘This is the first time that average weekly ordinary time earnings for full-time adults have been greater than $2,000.
‘The growth of 1.7 per cent in average weekly earnings for full-time adults for the six months to May 2025 was similar to the rise of 1.8 per cent in the Wage Price Index for the same period.
‘Annual growth in May 2025 remained high at 4.5 per cent, a rise of $86.60 a week from May 2024. This was just below the annual growth rate of 4.6 per cent in the year to November 2024.
‘Average weekly earnings growth for full-time adults was stronger in the private sector, with annual growth of 4.6 per cent, compared with the public sector’s 3.6 per cent.
‘The gender pay gap in average weekly ordinary full-time earnings narrowed slightly from 11.9 per cent to 11.5 per cent.
‘This is the equal lowest gender pay gap in this series, with female average earnings rising faster than male earnings.’
The gender pay gap in average weekly ordinary full-time earnings is the most commonly cited of the gender pay gap measures.
Average weekly ordinary time earnings for full-time workers were highest in the Australian Capital Territory ($2,236.60) and Western Australia ($2,154.70), and lowest in Tasmania ($1,793.00) and South Australia ($1,894.10).
Workers in the Mining industry remained the highest paid on average, at $3,174.50 a week for full-time employees, followed by Information media and telecommunications ($2,560.70).
The lowest paid full-time worker averages were in Accommodation and food services ($1,459.70) and Retail trade ($1,504.40).
Average earnings for all employees also continued to grow, rising by 4.1 per cent over the year to May 2025, lower than the 5.5 per cent seen in November 2024.
The ABS would like to thank businesses in Australia for their continued support in responding to our surveys.
Media notes
- Percentage movements in average weekly earnings can be affected by changes in both the level of earnings per employee and in the composition of employment. Factors that can contribute to compositional change include variations in the proportion of full-time, part-time, casual and junior employees; variations in the occupational distribution within and across industries; and variations in the distribution of employment between industries.
- These statistics provide insights into weekly earnings for males and females, including information by industry, sector, and state/territory of work. They are one of the best sources of information for measuring weekly earnings differences between males and females in Australia and complement a range of other related statistics produced by the ABS (e.g. Employee Earnings and Hours and Characteristics of Employment) and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
- An alternative source for estimates of movements in earnings (wages growth) is the quarterly Wage Price Index (WPI). Unlike AWE, the WPI is designed to measure the change over time in the price of wages and salaries (i.e. a pure price change, unaffected by the changes in the quality or quantity of work performed or the composition of the workforce). WPI is produced on a quarterly basis.
- Estimates of percentage change have been calculated using unrounded estimates and may be different from, but are more accurate than, movements obtained from calculating percentage changes using the rounded estimates presented in this publication.
- Data in this media release refer to seasonally adjusted data for all series excluding industry data, which are original estimates.
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