Are you a 1 percenter?

For myself: You’re in the top 0.08% richest people in the world by income. I don't feel that rich

 

50 / 50 so far. Hmmmm....interesting......

 

I got that much in pocket money back in the 80's.

 

Australia's figures are approx:

average 90k pa
top 10% 180k (average 400k)
top 0.1% 600k (average 1.2M)

(But this isn't necessarily the same as wealth)

 

Not saying the avearge isn't correct, but it projects a misleading image.

My vision of an "average" person is say yer teacher, yer nurse, yer plumber, cops, ambo's, Council workers, childcare workers, yer retail workers, cleaners, factory workers, all unskilled labour jobs...the loads of folks who make up a large percent of the workforce... and so forth.

Most of that group make nowhere near $90k per year. Nurses can get there if they go ballistic and pluck all the cream penalty shifts and so on - but it aint the norm. (someone will pluck out an anecdote of a nurse earning over $100k now, and flog it off like it's what every nurse earns )

The workforce is a pyramid - small group at the top who make a fortune - CEO's and upper management, higher rung professionals who have their own business/practice and/or bonuses etc, and down to middle management, supervisors and so on down to the bottom..an ever-decreasing pool of higher earners, and an ever-increasing pool of lower-income earners.

The largest volume of workers is at the bottom of the pyramid.

The top of the pyramid drag the average up considerably...one CEO on $19m per year is equal to a lot of home cleaners/K-Mart check out clerks down at the bottom.

My observation is the majority of the workforce would be scratching to rake in $50k per year each.

 

The average paints a completely accurate picture of the average.

The median accurately indicates the more "typical" income.

That's why both forms of measurement exist.

Imagine doing a survey of Body Mass Index across a country but removing all the morbidly obese because they skew the data. Or doing the reverse and removing all athletes.

A lot of folks conveniently say "Oh don't pay attention to the average, it's skewed because of all the insanely high income earners". But the average is the average.

FYI, the median income for a full time working Australian adult is around $55k pa. About 40% lower than the average.

 

The use of average in those figures of the 'upper' income earners was purposeful and appropriate in it's context. I do agree that the average income overall paints an inaccurate view of the 'average' person and what they earn.

 

When we say median/average wage, do we usually refer to the BASE (the net take home money after tax, commission, superannuation, etc) or ALL INCLUSIVE salary? Also I couldn't find the definition of wage in the ABS website. Cheers!

 

$50K per year is pretty low for someone on full age rates.

In our business which has storeman, forklift drivers, clerks, receptionists etc there is not anyone earning $50K or less.

Maybe we are too generous or its that odd anecdote you refer to - but the $75K average seems a pretty fair representation to me.

 

Most unskilled labour are earning approx $25 or less per hour if they are permanent full-time, I'd say, .

If they work a 40 hour week (no Awards allow for that anymore unless they do overtime hours after about 37.5 hrs); they earn approx $1000 per week - $52k per year if you don't include any Annual Leave loading.

Call it another grand extra to allow for leave loading on 37.5 hours times 4 weeks - this is over-allowing by a few hundred actually.

but anyway; you get the drift.

Check this:

https://calculate.fairwork.gov.au/CheckPay/Summary

Granted; a senior Private Sector Office Clerk would probably be on more than the Award rate; let's call it $30 per hour.

$30x37.5 hours = $1125 x 52 weeks = $58500
Plus A/L leave loading @17.5% = $787.00

Total yearly wage = $59,287.50