Average weekly ordinary time earnings for full-time adults reached $2,083.70 in May, up 3.7 per cent over the year, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday. That is the smallest annual increase since November 2022.
Across the six months to May the figure rose 1.6 per cent. The ABS has not recorded a weaker half-year movement since May 2022.
Prices moved faster. In its most recent consumer price index release, published on 29 July, the ABS put annual inflation at 3.8 per cent. On the headline measure, full-time pay went backwards in real terms over the year to May.
“Growth in average weekly earnings for full-time adults for the six months to May 2026 was 1.6 per cent," ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick said. "Annual growth to May 2026 was 3.7 per cent which was the lowest annual increase since November 2022.”
The slowdown is concentrated in the private sector. Private sector full-time earnings rose 1.4 per cent over the six months, against 2.3 per cent in the public sector. On an annual basis a public sector job now pays $2,263.10 a week against $2,034.10 in the private sector, a gap of $229.
The broader measure tells a harder story again. Average weekly total earnings across all employees, which takes in part-time and casual work and overtime, sat at $1,579.20, up 2.4 per cent over the year. That is more than a full percentage point below inflation.
Mining pays the most at $3,224.20 a week, followed by information media and telecommunications at $2,714.10 and the electricity, gas, water and waste sector at $2,546.00. The fastest six-month growth came in transport, postal and warehousing at 4.3 per cent, then wholesale trade at 3.2 per cent.
By jurisdiction, the ACT records the highest full-time earnings at $2,290.20. Queensland had the largest six-month growth at 2.5 per cent, ahead of the Northern Territory at 2.2 per cent.
The gender pay gap narrowed to 11.3 per cent, down from 11.5 per cent in November 2025 and the lowest the ABS has recorded. Men in full-time work earned $2,181.00 a week and women earned $1,934.50. Women's pay rose faster over the year, at 3.8 per cent against 3.5 per cent for men.
Average weekly earnings is a six-monthly series, so the next reading covers the period to November and lands early next year. The wage price index, which tracks the cost of the same job over time rather than the mix of jobs being done, is the nearer test of whether pay catches prices.
