In 1981, average weekly earnings for a man working full-time was $311 (the equivalent of $1,238 today) compared to $241 ($959 today) for a woman who worked full-time. This equates to a gender pay gap of 23%.
6302.0 - Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, Sep 1980.
6302.0 - Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, Jun 1982.
Average incomes increased from $12,400 in 1966, and to $36,890 in 1978.
1985 – $167.50 per week.
In 1998, the average Aussie worker was earning $710 a week, or $37,000 a year, which is below the national minimum wage in 2023.
6302.0 - Average Weekly Earnings, Dec 1972.
The average wage in the mid 1970s was around $6,000, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, so the median Sydney house price was almost six times' the value of the average annual income.
6302.0 - Average Weekly Earnings, Jun 1971.
The median salary in Australia in 2023 is 6,650 AUD (USD 4,420) per month. The median salary refers to the middle value of all the salaries considered. In other words, around half of the population in Australia earns less than 6,650 AUD per month, while the other half earns more.
The weekly basic wage in December 1982 was $121 for men and $101 for women. A loaf of bread cost 77 cents, and a 600ml bottle of milk was 76 cents. In August 1982, for the first time in 70 years in Queensland, 52 unions declared a general strike over the introduction of a 38-hour week.
Australians are also earning a lot more now than we were back then; the average full time earnings in 1975 was $7,600 per year, today the annual average earnings exceed $72,000 per annum.
The average annual salary in Australia is $68,900 and $35.30 per hour. It is just the average salary for basic workers but skilled and experienced workers also earn around $108,980 annually.
6302.0 - Average Weekly Earnings, Jun 1973.
Minimum and Average Wages 1990 and 2021.
Average Full Time Wage: 1990: $566.60 per week, Male 38 hrs.
6302.0 - Average Weekly Earnings, Dec 1974.
In 1995-96 the average wage and salary income for employees in metropolitan Australia was $29,500 compared with an average of $25,565 for those in non-metropolitan areas, a difference of $3,935 or 15.4%.
The average earnings for a week's work in 1965-66 was $57 (around $740 in today's dollars), and minimum wages for women were set around 30 per cent lower than for men. We measure average wages slightly differently now, but the newest data on average weekly earnings for Australia is $1160 per week.
Wages in Australia averaged 553.70 AUD/Week from 1969 until 2022, reaching an all time high of 1378.60 AUD/Week in the fourth quarter of 2022 and a record low of 59.10 AUD/Week in the third quarter of 1969.
6302.0 - Average Weekly Earnings, Sep 1967.
6302.0 - Average Weekly Earnings, Sep 1968.
For instance, 50 years ago, in February 1962, a “standard” Holden cost £1,107 or $2,214. At that time the average weekly male wage (non-managerial) was $49.40.
In 1999-2000 there were approximately nine million income units living in private dwellings in Australia. While their mean gross weekly cash income was $726, the median (i.e. the midpoint when all units are ranked in ascending order of income) was considerably lower at $535 (table 1).
In 1996-97 the average weekly income received by couple families was $890, by one-parent families $432 and by single persons $391, according to results from the latest household survey of income released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.