According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average annual wage of the top 1% was $823,763 as of 2020.1 A more recent study by SmartAsset points out that the national average of the top 1% earners is $597,815.2 Have in mind that the figures vary greatly from state to state.
In fact, the average American household earns a median income of under $70,000, but in some places, the top 1% can earn as much as $955,000. Those annual earnings can seem far out of reach in a country where less than 10% of all households earn more than $200,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Australians wanting to be in the country's top 1% for wealth need to have an individual net worth of US$5.5 million ($8.3 million), Knight Frank's 2023 Wealth Report has found.
Average Australian Salaries in 2023
A taxable income that was $131,501 or higher was within the top 10% of earners in Australia last year. About 5% of taxpayers had incomes above $180,000.
From the top 5% to the top 1%
Salaries start to jump significantly the closer you get to the top 1%. You'll start to see dramatic shifts in the top 5%, where the EPI found the average earners significantly increased to $343,000 in 2020, up from $324,000 the year before.
The top 10 per cent of earners in Australia make $122,664 or more, with some of the best paid incomes in the country including miners who rake in $124,550 on average, school principals who take home $130,142 and dentists that are earning $131,773.
If your taxable income was $131,501 or higher, then you earned more than 90 per cent of other Australians. If you earned more than $253,066, then you took home more than 99 per cent of taxpayers. About 5 per cent of taxpayers had incomes above $180,000.
So if you're on $100k or more, congratulations, you're in the top 20% of Aussie income earners. If not, don't worry, you're in the good company of 80% of Aussies.
The average earnings of the top 20% are 12x the average earnings of the bottom 20% and the wealth of the average household in the top 20% is 93x the average wealth of those in the bottom 20%. The average household gross income is $121,108, however the top 20% of households earn 48% of all income.
Only 39,209 have taxable incomes of more than $500,000, and of these only 14,467 have taxable incomes of more than $1 million.
Someone earning $200,000 a year would be among the top 3.5 per cent of Australians who fall into the top tax bracket which cuts in at $180,000 a year. Mr Derbas suggested in the video that singles living in the Harbour City would do incredibly well on the same salary.
$100,000/year is above an average salary and if you're frugal enough, on $100,000/year, you should be able to live a good life and save some money too. Usually if you consider living in desirable locations of cities like Melbourne and Sydney, most of your income will be consumed in the house rents.
The average annual income range for the Australian middle class is between AUD 46,000 and AUD 140,000. What are the most common occupations for the Australian middle class?
Top 10% income
The average earnings of those in the top 10% were roughly $173,000 in 2020, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Landing in the top 10% is a fairly attainable goal for upwardly mobile Americans.
Across the US, the average income for the top 2% of all earners is $206,000.
Four in five Australians earn less than $100,000 with new tax figures revealing the federal budget is increasingly reliant on the nation's best-paid 1 per cent to cover the cost of growing services and infrastructure.
The median salary in Australia has crept up to about $90,000, but is undoubtedly a bit higher in much of Sydney. From that perspective, $150,000 sounds great. Be aware though that wages are growing much slower than the cost of housing and some other expenses—even if inflation is not rampant as I write this.
The average Australian would need to earn over $300,000 a year to consider themselves as officially "rich", new research has found.
But it may surprise you to know that just 3.1 per cent of Australian taxpayers had taxable incomes that high in 2016-17, the latest year for which figures are available. Only another 14.9 per cent had taxable incomes exceeding $80,000 a year.
> Five classes can be identified in Australian society. > They are: 'established affluent', 'emergent affluent', 'mobile middle', 'established middle, and 'established working'.
The ATO classifies those who control a net wealth of $5 million or more as 'wealthy individuals'2. Those with a net wealth of $30 million or more are classified as 'high-wealth individuals'. The wealthiest person in Australia is currently Gina Rinehart, with a net worth of around US$14.8 billion.
Note: Salary is one of the most important contributors to the total income. As such, the average median household income (Purchasing Power Parity) in Australia was 95,371 AUD (USD 63,393) for the year 2021. This puts Australia in the top 10 countries for the highest median household income.