Australian Data · ABS Average Weekly Earnings, May 2026
Average Salary by Industry in Australia —
ABS Weekly Earnings, 2026
Which industries pay the most in Australia? Full-time average weekly ordinary time earnings across all 18 industry sectors, from the latest ABS Average Weekly Earnings release — mining at the top, hospitality at the bottom.
Published 2026-06-29 · Updated 2026-07-16 · Reading time ~6 min
Highest
$167,700
Mining
All industries
$108,400
Full-time average
Lowest
$78,500
Accommodation & food
Top-to-bottom gap
2.1×
Mining vs hospitality
Short answer
The highest-paying industry in Australia is Mining at $3,224.20/week ($167,700/year), and the lowest is Accommodation & food services at $1,509.90/week ($78,500/year). The all-industries average is $2,083.70/week (~$108,400/year). These are full-time adult ordinary-time averages (ABS, May 2026) — they exclude overtime and part-time workers, and being means they sit above the median. Compare with average salary by age.
Average weekly earnings by industry — Australia
ABS Average Weekly Earnings, May 2026. Figures are full-time adult average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE) — a mean that excludes overtime and part-time workers. Annualised = weekly × 52. Ranked highest to lowest.
| Industry | Weekly (AWOTE) | Annualised |
|---|---|---|
| Mining | $3,224.20 | $167,700 |
| Information media & telecommunications | $2,714.10 | $141,100 |
| Electricity, gas, water & waste services | $2,546.00 | $132,400 |
| Professional, scientific & technical services | $2,389.60 | $124,300 |
| Financial & insurance services | $2,341.30 | $121,700 |
| Education & training | $2,197.90 | $114,300 |
| Public administration & safety | $2,179.80 | $113,300 |
| Health care & social assistance | $2,037.20 | $105,900 |
| Construction | $1,985.30 | $103,200 |
| Rental, hiring & real estate services | $1,979.60 | $102,900 |
| Transport, postal & warehousing | $2,032.30 | $105,700 |
| Wholesale trade | $1,982.90 | $103,100 |
| Administrative & support services | $1,950.00 | $101,400 |
| Manufacturing | $1,843.10 | $95,800 |
| Arts & recreation services | $1,877.40 | $97,600 |
| Other services | $1,621.70 | $84,300 |
| Retail trade | $1,581.60 | $82,200 |
| Accommodation & food services | $1,509.90 | $78,500 |
| All industries | $2,083.70 | $108,400 |
Source: ABS Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, May 2026 (full-time adult ordinary time earnings, original series). Verify the current figures at abs.gov.au. Annualised figures are weekly × 52 and exclude overtime — treat them as directional.
What drives pay in each industry
By far the highest-paying industry — driven by remote/FIFO loadings, capital intensity, and demand for skilled trades and engineers.
Tech, media, and telco roles concentrate in capital cities and skew toward higher-paid professional and technical work.
Utilities pay well above average — heavily unionised, capital-intensive, with shift and on-call loadings.
Law, accounting, consulting, engineering, architecture and IT services — high-credential, city-concentrated work.
Banking, funds management and insurance — among the highest-paid white-collar sectors, concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne.
Lifted by full-time teachers, academics and trainers on structured pay scales; the full-time figure sits above the all-industries average.
Government, defence, police and emergency services — stable, banded pay with allowances.
Australia's largest employer. Full-time AWOTE is near the average, but the sector has a very high part-time share that this full-time figure excludes.
Solid full-time pay, especially for licensed trades and site supervisors; enterprise agreements lift commercial-construction wages.
Wide spread — base salaries are modest, but commission can lift total earnings well above the ordinary-time figure shown here.
Logistics, freight, rail and aviation — shift loadings and overtime (not counted in AWOTE) push actual take-home higher.
Distribution and B2B sales sit just below the all-industries average for full-time ordinary-time pay.
Cleaning, security, recruitment and office support — a broad mix that averages a little below the all-industries figure.
Production, food processing and advanced manufacturing — award and enterprise-agreement pay, often with overtime on top.
Sport, gambling, creative and cultural work — full-time pay below average, with highly variable individual earnings.
Personal care, repairs, and civic/religious organisations — among the lower-paid full-time sectors.
Second-lowest full-time pay, and one of the highest part-time shares — the full-time figure understates how casualised the sector is.
The lowest-paid industry. Heavily award-based, young workforce, and the highest part-time/casual share of any sector.
The gender gap inside each industry
The May 2026 release also splits every industry by sex, and the spread is wider than the headline suggests. Across all industries, full-time male AWOTE is $2,181.00 a week against $1,934.50 for women — an 11.3% gap on ordinary-time pay alone. It is not evenly spread: the gap is widest in Administrative & support services ($2,137.40 vs $1,618.10 — 24.3%) and Health care & social assistance ($2,474.10 vs $1,875.50 — 24.2%, reflecting where doctors and nursing/care roles sit), followed by Financial & insurance services (18.9%). At the other end, Other services is the one industry where women out-earn men ($1,660.10 vs $1,599.30), and Construction's full-time gap is just 3.1% — though few women hold those full-time roles. These full-time ordinary-time figures understate the total gap, because they exclude the part-time hours where women are over-represented.
Two more splits from the same release. Public vs private: public-sector AWOTE is $2,263.10 against $2,034.10 — a 10.1% premium, largely composition (more professionals, no retail or hospitality). Growth: AWOTE rose 1.6% in the six months to May 2026 and 3.7% through the year — comparing a payslip against an older figure, add roughly that much per year elapsed.
Why these numbers look high: mean vs median
The figures on this page are averages (means) of full-time adult ordinary-time pay. The mean is pulled upward by high earners, so it sits above the median — the pay of the typical middle worker — in every industry. Two more reasons these numbers may look higher than your own pay:
- Full-time only — part-time and casual workers are excluded. In retail, hospitality and health care, a large share of the workforce is part-time, so the full-time average overstates typical take-home.
- Ordinary time only — overtime is excluded. In mining, construction and transport, actual pay runs higher than the ordinary-time figure here.
- Adults only — junior and trainee rates are excluded, which lifts the average above what younger workers earn.
For the median (middle worker), the ABS Employee Earnings release is the better reference; for pay across your career stage, see average salary by age.
Your salary is only the starting point
Two people earning $140,000 can have completely different financial futures. What matters is the chain the salary feeds: income → expenses → savings → investments → net worth. A mining salary that gets spent builds less wealth than a hospitality salary that gets invested.
See how your income translates into wealth: check your net worth percentile for your age — or start from the number itself with the net worth tracker.
Compare against the full picture
Your industry sets your pay; what you do with it sets your wealth. Free tools and data, no signup.
- Average salary by profession in Australia — average earnings by occupation group, from ABS Employee Earnings and Hours. Where nurses, engineers and accountants sit.
- Average salary by age in Australia — median total income by 5-year age band, men vs women, and the peak earning years.
- Australian income tax calculator — enter your gross salary, see take-home pay, Medicare Levy, and PAYG.
- Average net worth by age — assets minus liabilities by age band, from ABS + HILDA.
- Average super balance by age — ATO/APRA median plus a live percentile calculator.
Frequently asked questions
What is the highest-paying industry in Australia?+
Mining is by far the highest-paying industry in Australia. Full-time adult average weekly ordinary time earnings in mining were $3,224.20 a week in May 2026 (ABS) — roughly $167,700 a year, and about 55% above the all-industries average of $2,083.70 a week. The next-highest sectors are Information media & telecommunications (~$2,714/week), Electricity, gas & water (~$2,546/week), and Professional, scientific & technical services (~$2,390/week). Mining pays a premium because of remote and fly-in-fly-out loadings, capital intensity, and strong demand for skilled trades and engineers.
What is the lowest-paying industry in Australia?+
Accommodation & food services is the lowest-paying industry, at $1,501.60 a week (about $78,100 a year) in full-time adult ordinary time earnings (ABS, May 2026). Retail trade is next at $1,565.20 a week (~$81,400). Both sectors are heavily award-based with young workforces and the highest share of part-time and casual workers — so even these full-time figures overstate what a typical worker in the sector takes home across the year.
Is this the average or the median salary by industry?+
These are averages (means), not medians. The ABS Average Weekly Earnings series reports average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE) — the total full-time adult ordinary-time pay in a sector divided by the number of full-time adults. The mean is pulled up by high earners, so it sits above the median in every industry. If you want the median (the typical middle worker), the ABS Employee Earnings release publishes median weekly earnings — generally lower than the AWOTE figures shown here.
Does this include part-time workers and overtime?+
No on both counts. The figures are for full-time adult employees only, and they measure ordinary time earnings — they exclude overtime. Including part-time workers would lower the averages substantially in sectors with a high part-time share, such as retail, accommodation & food, and health care. Conversely, in sectors with a lot of overtime — mining, construction, transport — actual take-home pay runs higher than the ordinary-time figure shown.
What is the average full-time salary in Australia overall?+
Across all industries, full-time adult average weekly ordinary time earnings were $2,083.70 a week in May 2026 (ABS) — about $108,400 a year on a 52-week basis. This is an average for full-time adults and excludes overtime; the figure including overtime (average weekly total earnings) is higher. Because it's a mean, it sits above what a typical worker earns — the median full-time wage is lower.
Why does mining pay so much more than other industries?+
Mining combines several wage-lifting factors: work is often in remote locations with fly-in-fly-out arrangements that carry significant location and roster loadings; the industry is highly capital-intensive, so labour is a smaller share of cost and employers compete hard for skilled workers; and it relies on licensed trades, operators, and engineers in short supply. The result is full-time ordinary-time pay around $3,174 a week — roughly double the lowest-paid sectors.
How does salary by industry compare to salary by age?+
They answer different questions. Industry pay reflects the sector you work in; age pay reflects where you are in your career. The two interact — a 25-year-old in mining can out-earn a 45-year-old in hospitality. For the career-stage view, see Richify's companion page on average salary by age in Australia, which shows median total income by 5-year age band from ABS Personal Income data.
How often is this data updated?+
The ABS publishes Average Weekly Earnings twice a year, for the May and November reference periods, usually released about ten weeks later. This page uses the May 2026 release — the most recent available. We re-verify every figure against each new release. For the live numbers at any time, check the ABS Average Weekly Earnings page at abs.gov.au.
Is Richify available in Australia, and what does it cost?+
Yes — Richify is available to download in Australia on the App Store and Google Play, and it is free to start. The app tracks your income alongside super, ASX shares, and property, so you can see how your earnings translate into net worth over time. Felix and the specialist AI agents are built for Australians, with HECS, super, and CGT logic baked in.
Reading this from Germany or the Netherlands?
These same ABS figures are also published in German and Dutch, each with a comparison against that country's own official earnings data: Durchschnittsgehalt Australien (with the Destatis full-time comparison) and Gemiddeld salaris Australië (with why the Dutch CBS figures are not directly comparable).
