ABCDiamond

Aug 2008 Average Weekly Earnings, Australia.

Full-time adult ordinary time earnings $1,145.10 pw
Full-time adult total earnings $1,196.20 pw
(Male $1,292.60 : Female $1,033.80)

Just released: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]?OpenDocument

Brisben

I don't take any notice of this as the numbers are skewed due to some incredibly high earners and a lot of low earners.

ABCDiamond

But at least 0.01% must be on this figure ?

Self-employed persons such as trade subcontractors, etc., are excluded for the purposes of the ABS Average wage surveys. It only includes wage earners.

bridie

If you're talking about after tax then yes, OH is average!!

NKSK version 2

Pre-tax and not including superannuation?

ABCDiamond

Yes. As in weekly declared gross wages by the employers.

It is based on submissions to the Australian Taxation Office's (ATO) Pay As You Go Withholding (PAYGW) scheme.

Therefore ONLY employees are included, not the self employed, and will exclude annual bonuses, as these will be discounted when the average figures are calculated using a centred 7-term Henderson moving average of the seasonally adjusted series.

Superannuation is not classed as an income, as it is an employers expense, in exactly the same way as the UK Employer pays the employers extra NHS contributions.

ozzieeagle

Whats the average in the UK at present ABCD ?

Reason I ask, is over the years, I've been astounded at how close they seem to be. Especially when you throw the US into the equation. They all seem to come out within a cooee of just Foreign exchange fluctuations, making the difference.

Makes me wonder if there is anything in the anti Globalisation argument, when you see how close the figures seem to be... I mean who really is running things.

ABCDiamond

The last two times I checked it are:

Feb-08
Australia. Full-time adult total earnings $1,173.50 pw http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/6302.0

UK Average Wage comparison being £23,700, (£455.77pw) according to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7252504.stm
at 2.18 to the £ it would be $993.58 (rate at 15/2/08)
ie: Australia is 17.8% higher than UK
However at current FX rates it would be 9.5% higher than UK


Feb-07
Australia: $58,260 : Aus Source: www.ausstats.abs.gov.au

UK: Feb 2007 £23,764 : UK Source: www.statistics.gov.uk
at 2.499 to the £ it would be $59,386.24 (rate at 15/2/07)
ie: UK is 1.47% higher than Australia

In my opinion, it is the FX rates that make the main difference.

Brisben

That is very interesting, I was always led to believe UK wages were much higher than in Australia for like for like jobs. Especially when I lived in the UK.

IvanM

SE England wages are higher but the wealth is not spread as evenly as here.

IvanM

Globalisation is a rather all encompassing term including free trade, free movement of finance, terms of trade etc etc. The anti-globalisation bandwagon do seem to think of it as an all encompassing evil and probably forget that the dope they are smoking is probably funding a terrorist group somewhere.

Australia's agricultural industry has a large amount to gain from free trade however the car industry (as per any other western country) has no chance in its current form. Over all freer trade increases the wealth of its participants although that wealth may not be spread as evenly.

ABCDiamond

Who led you to believe that ?

In reality it will depend on "which" jobs. Some will be higher, some will be lower.

If it is information from forums, that led you to believe the wages figures, you have to take account of the reason for many of the people still being on these forums.

Most of the migrants who are happily living in their new country, never return to the forums. Those who are not yet fully settled tend to spend more time on the forums, hence the image of reality may become scewed towards one group of people rather than the entire picture.

eg: Lets say 1,000 people move to a new country.
then say 900 settle happily, and choose not to return to a forum, (or have no time due to being overworked, or being on the beach !)
This leaves 100 still using the forums.
50 of these may be have one view, and 50 may have a different view.
New readers will get the impression that the view on the subject is 50-50, whilst it could really be as low as 5-95, or any other figure in between.

Brisben

Good point.

I was just led to believe that from what i had heard over in the UK, no real statistical evidence to support my perception.

Now living in Australia I don't see that, I also now understand that demand makes a big difference to wages, something I never really considered when I lived in the UK as I had a single one dimensional perspective.

Having worked here also I see the reasons why wages differ in some areas and are the samish in others.

Crazy Horse

Interesting stuff ABC thanks for putting it up.

BadgeIsBack

Most of the people complaining about low wages are the people on low wages (go figure) - people on high incomes don't talk about it so much. People on low wages may have moved in a sector, or to a different area etc. There may well be a reason for it, or a reason why they were on a much higher wage before they came over.

People talk about not using FX rates certainly for cost of living style exercises so this one is interesting.

I do know that just about every wage earner who I know or know about who is not a professional nor has their own business earns a fair bit less than this average - of course.

And everyone I know in London earns more than 23k - infact generally, alot more.