According to the latest employment data, the average Australian worker earns $1400 a week, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found that median weekly wages rose by an average of 7.4 per cent from $1300 to $1396 in August 2023.
Average hourly wages also increased by 30 cents to $40 in August 2024 from $39.70.For part-time workers, the median wage was $691 per week, Breaking the data down to full-time workers alone, weekly wages were found to be $1,700, up $100 from $1,600 in August 2023.
The ABS found that Australians’ median weekly earnings have risen at a faster rate for women over the past five years, but male workers in Australia earn an average of $377 more per week than women.
Median weekly earnings for men in August 2024 were $1,577, while women earned $1,200.
Employment data also revealed a slight downward trend in Australians regularly working from home, with 36 per cent of employed people found to work from home on average, down 1 percentage point from last year.
ABS head of labor statistics David Taylor said "This is down slightly from 37 per cent in 2023 and is still four per cent below pre-pandemic level."This shows that many changes in work arrangements have continued beyond the pandemic.
Meanwhile, casual work is becoming the most preferred occupation among Australians, with the ABS finding that 75 per cent of the country's casual workers actually like it.Hourly pay was the main reason about a quarter of people preferred casual work, Taylor added, while for a quarter of casual workers who preferred non-casual work, the most common reasons were paid holiday entitlements or having a more secure job.
