Earnings and work hours

The latest fortnight of data continues to show some signs of seasonality around the end of the school holiday period. For further information, see the Media Release.

Between the weeks ending 10 April and 24 April 2021:

• Payroll jobs increased by 0.4%
• Total wages paid increased by 0.3%

In the December quarter 2020:

• 32 disputes occurred.
• 2,600 employees were involved and 16,500 working days lost.
• disputes occurred in 5 industries and in 7 states.

During the year ended December 2020, there were 77 disputes and a total of 33,500 working days lost.

During 2017-18 there were:

• 19.6 million job relationships, up 2.1% on 2016-17
• 13.8 million employed persons, up 1.9% on 2016-17

Estimates for average weekly ordinary time earnings for full-time adults (seasonally adjusted):

• Increased by 3.2% to $1,711.60 annually to November 2020.
• Males: $1,970.90 (public), and $1,770.30 (private).
• Females: $1,762.00 (public), and $1,475.50 (private).

During 2017-18:

• Total personal income was $903.9 billion
• Median personal income was $49,805, up 3.0% on 2016-17
• The largest income category was employee income, at 87.1% of total personal income

• 2.3 million casual employees (22% of employees, 18% of all employed), down from 2.6 million in Feb 2020.
• 20% of employees didn't have minimum guaranteed hours, up from 19% in Aug 2014.
• 1.0 million independent contractors (8.2% of employed).
• 3% of employees were registered with a labour hire firm/employment agency.

• Median employee earnings was $1,150 per week, up $50 (4.5%) since August 2019.
• Median hourly earnings was $36/hr, up $3.50/hr (10.8%) since August 2019.

• 14% of employees (1.4 million) were trade union members.
• Since 1992, the proportion of employees who were trade union members has fallen from 40% to 14%.
• The Education and Training industry (31%) and the Professionals occupation (21%) had the highest trade union membership.

• Median employee earnings have increased $50 (4.5%) to $1,150 per week since Aug 2019.
• 2.3 million casual employees (22% of employees), down from 2.6 million (24%) in Feb 2020.
• 1.0 million independent contractors (8.2% of employment).
• 14.3% of employees (1 million) were trade union members, down from 40% in 1992.

• Median weekly earnings were $1,110 for all employees, $1,463 for full-time employees and $577 for part-time employees.
• Individual arrangements was the most common method of setting pay (41.1%), followed by collective agreements (37.9%) and award only (21.0%).

• 563,600 people had a work-related injury or illness (4.2% of people who worked at some time during the year).
• The most common cause of injury or illness was 'Lifting, pushing, pulling or bending' (24.2%).
• 60% had time off as a result of the injury or illness.
• 27% received workers compensation for the injury or illness.