Which jobs and states in Australia saw the biggest wage rises?
Check out our infographic of career options and locations where wages are actually rising.
Hoping for a big salary rise this year? Move to Victoria and get a job in a bank.
Wage price index (WPI) data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that overall, wages are going up at a lower rate than ever. In the year ending December 2015, the average wage rise across all industries was just 2.2%. That's the lowest figure since the ABS began tracking the data in 1998. In private sector jobs, the figure was even lower at 2.0%, while public sector (government) workers saw a 2.6% rise.
That single figure conceals major variations in how much wages rose across industries and across states, however. The lowest wage rises were in administrative and support service (up 1.4%), while the biggest rise was in financial and insurance services (2.8%). (Basic wages of course vary hugely depending on the specific role you're in, and those averages can conceal big differences between basic wage earners and higher-paid positions.)
The infographic below shows the rise in wages in the main industry sectors Australia-wide:
Wage rises also varied heavily depending on state. Victoria saw the biggest rises year-on-year, up 2.4%. The ACT was up just 1.6%, which is surprising given the perception of it as a government-driven location and the 2.6% rise for government workers.
The map below shows the percentage rises for each state and territory:
That variation is potentially good news, given how much the average home loan amount varies from state to state. There are also big variations in the proportion of our wages which we spend on rent.
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