Average weekly wage growth has hit the brakes

The Australian Bureau of Statistics head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said the recent annual increase in full-time earnings of 1.9 per cent was higher than it was last May (1.4 per cent), but lower than in November 2021 (2.1 per cent) and also lower than the 2.6 per cent for the wage price index, released on Wednesday (17 August).

The latest average earnings data follows a six-month period of considerable compositional change in the labour market, with relatively strong average monthly employment growth of around 46,000 people.

“Over the past six months there has been increasing employment, including full-time employment, in some lower paying industries, such as accommodation and food services, placing some downward influence on changes in average earnings,” said Mr Jarvis.

“May also follows a period of reasonably strong growth in employment for women and for younger workers, who have tended to have lower average full-time earnings.”

Over those six months to May 2022, average weekly ordinary time earnings for full-time men rose by 1.4 per cent (to $1,873), which was higher than for women (up 1.1 per cent to $1,609). However, over the year the increase was higher for women (2.1 per cent) than men (2.0 per cent).

“The gap in the headline measure of average weekly full-time earnings for men and women increased slightly from 13.8 per cent in November 2021 to 14.1 per cent in May 2022, although remained below the 14.2 per cent from May 2021,” Mr Jarvis said.

Average weekly ordinary time earnings for full-time workers continued to be highest in the ACT ($1,988) and Western Australia ($1,937) and remained lowest in Tasmania ($1,568) and South Australia ($1,624).

Workers in the mining industry remained the highest paid on average, at $2,701 per week for full-time workers, followed by those in information media and telecommunications, at $2,236, and financial and insurance services ($2,148).

The lowest paid full-time workers on average were in the accommodation and food services ($1,220) and retail trade ($1,327) industries.

The release also includes earnings for all employees (full-time and part-time), which showed that average earnings for all male employees increased by 2.0 per cent over the year (to $1,587) and for all female employees by 4.3 per cent (to $1,116).

“Given women are much more likely to work part-time than men, there continues to be a larger gap in earnings for all employees, than for full-time employees, of around 29.7 per cent,” Mr Jarvis said.