Deciding if you're working class or middle class depends on income, occupation, education, and self-identification, with middle class often defined as earning 75% to 200% of the median income (e.g., around $50k-$130k in Australia in 2024), while working class involves lower wages, manual jobs, less security, and fewer advantages, though subjective views and job power (like managerial control) heavily influence perception.
The middle class falls in-between. In 2022 the median income in Australia was $65,000 a year according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Anyone making less than this amount would be considered working class. Anyone making more than $137,000 falls in the top 10% which is considered upper class.
Working class implies those that work physical or low skill jobs, middle class implies those with professional grade jobs.
Median Full Time Salary Australia for Skilled Workers
Entry to mid-level skilled roles often range between AUD 70,000 and AUD 100,000, comfortably above the national median.
Yes, $70k is a fair salary in Australia, often near the median income, making it a decent living for a single person, especially outside major cities, but it can be tight in expensive areas or for those with high living costs like mortgages, with full-time averages now closer to $90k-$100k.
According to ABS data, just 2.61 million Aussies – or about 10 per cent of the population – earn $100,000 or more a year. Many people will never reach a six-figure income in their working lives.
Yearly / Monthly / Weekly / Hourly Converter
If you make $90,000 per year, your salary per hour is $45. 55.
20-24 years old: $1,190.30 per week ($61,895.60 annually) 25-34 years old: $1,538.00 per week ($79,976 annually) 35-44 years old: $1,821.00 per week ($94,692 annually) 45-54 years and older: $1,800.00 per week ($93,600 annually)
According to Pew Research Center, for a three-person household the “middle-income” range in 2022 dollars was about $56,600 to $169,800. A household earning $100,000 places you squarely in the middle-income range under that definition — you're not lower-income, but neither are you upper class.
Jobs paying $150k+ in Australia span various sectors, including Tech (Senior Business Analysts, IT roles), Healthcare (Podiatrists, Clinical Managers), Construction & Trades (Construction Managers, Electricians, Site Supervisors, Drillers), Finance (Finance Managers, Financial Planners, Accountants), Sales, and Leadership (HR Directors, Operations Managers, School Principals, Government Directors). High-demand areas often involve senior or specialized roles in Engineering, Mining, Digital Marketing, and Management, with opportunities both with and without degrees.
Working-Class
Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most common definitions of "working class" in use in the United States limit its membership to workers who hold blue-collar and pink-collar jobs, or whose income is insufficiently high to place them in the middle class, or both.
Low-status (e.g., blue-collar or working-class) workers share a similar stereotype: They are cross-nationally perceived as incompetent (but sometimes warm, depending on the country; see [9]), and they are dehumanized (either as animals or interchangeable objects) [10].
For most people, what constitutes the middle class is less about literal earnings than it is about a standard of living—including owning a home, being able to afford to pay for a college education for your kids, and having enough disposable income to take a family vacation.
Yes, $600,000 can be enough to retire at 60 in Australia for many, especially if you're a single person aiming for a comfortable lifestyle, but it depends heavily on your spending, assets, and eligibility for the Age Pension. While some sources suggest $600k covers a single's comfortable retirement (around $52k-$53k/year), it's near the lower end, and couples might need closer to $700k for a similar standard, making financial planning crucial for a stress-free retirement.
They named these classes (1) an established affluent class, (2) an emergent affluent class, (3) a mobile middle class, (4) an established middle class, and (5) an established working class. A snapshot of these five classes shows the difference in these classes' economic, social and cultural capital.
Most Americans Earn Far Less Than $100k
According to last year's YouGov data, only 18% of U.S. adults earn more than $100,000 annually. And the biggest earners are mostly men—25%—and those aged 35 to 44—25%. For comparison, just 12% of women make six figures.
Here's a wealth class framework described by Bo Hanson, CFA, CFP® that breaks out 5 groups by net worth: the bottom 25%, the lower middle class, upper middle class, upper class, and the wealthiest 10%.
People earning £100,000 or more a year typically positioned themselves in the top 52 per cent relative to the rest of the population, which is just above average. In fact, they are almost right at the top of the earnings tree.
$500,000 in Australian retirement can last anywhere from 10-15 years for high spending ($40k-$50k/yr) to 20+ years if supplemented by the Age Pension and lower spending ($30k/yr), depending heavily on your age, lifestyle, investment returns (3-7% p.a. for 10-20 years), and if you qualify for the Age Pension. Expect 10-13 years at $50k/year or 17-20 years at $30k/year if you're 60, but combining it with the Age Pension at 65+ significantly extends its life, potentially covering expenses until 90-95.
The average Australian full-time worker is now earning more than $2000 a week for the first time in history. New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show the average ordinary full-time weekly earnings for adults hit $2011.40 before tax in May.
By the time you reach your 40s, you'll want to have around three times your annual salary saved for retirement. By age 50, you'll want to have around six times your salary saved. If you're behind on saving in your 40s and 50s, aim to pay down your debt to free up funds each month.
How to avoid paying higher-rate tax
To be in Australia's top 1% of individual taxpayers, you generally need an annual income of around $375,000 to $390,000, though figures vary slightly by source and year, with higher thresholds for households (around $530,000). For context, the median individual income is much lower (around $55,000), and while top earners often include surgeons and anaesthetists, reaching the top 1% of net worth requires significantly more wealth, often exceeding $7 million.
If you're earning $120,000 annually, your hourly wage is approximately $57.69 . To calculate this, divide your yearly salary by the average number of working hours per year — typically 2080 hours (52 weeks x 40 hours). So, $120,000 divided by 2080 equals an hourly income of $57.69.