Full time earnings increase again under Labor

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows average weekly full-time earnings have now increased by more than $300 per week since the Albanese Government was elected.

Average weekly earnings are up and the gender pay gap is closing under Labor.

That means more money in people’s pockets since we came to Government and more money again since the beginning of the year.

Helping Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn is a big focus for us and these figures show our policies on wages and the cost of living are making a meaningful difference.

Average weekly earnings growth is much stronger under this Government, and the Liberals and Nationals had a deliberate policy of wage stagnation and suppression and stood in the way of pay rises for workers.

Since coming to Government, they have grown by an annualised average of 4.2 per cent, compared to 2.5 per cent under our predecessors.

Average weekly ordinary full-time earnings are now $2,084 per week or $108,352 per year. They grew 1.6 per cent in six months to May 2026, to be 3.7 per cent higher through the year.

The average full-time worker is also getting tax cuts of more than $60 per week or almost $3,175 per year, once fully implemented.

Women are big beneficiaries of the substantial increase in average weekly earnings under Labor.

Along with the increase in average weekly earnings in today’s data, we’ve seen the gender pay gap fall to another record low of 11.3 per cent.

The gender pay gap has now fallen 2.8 percentage points under this Government. By contrast, it was stagnant in the four years prior to the 2022 election.

One of the best ways to help people with the cost of living is to boost wages for workers, and that’s been a big focus for the Albanese Government.

We’re acting to boost wages, close the gender pay gap, deliver workplace relations reforms and secure pay rises for some of the lowest paid workers in our community.

Inflation has come down three times in the past three months but it remains too high and we’re working to address it while we provide tax relief to workers and delivering reforms to help more first homebuyers into housing.

We know that higher productivity is a key to higher wages and living standards over the long-term and that’s why turning around Australia’s long standing productivity challenge was also a key focus of the Budget.

We’ve made a lot of progress in our economy but people are still under pressure and we’re doing something about it by rolling out more tax cuts and cost of living relief and working to boost wages.