Australia’s monthly wages bill has topped $100 billion for the first time.
New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show total wages and salaries paid by employers rose 3.9 percent, or $3.9 billion between August and September 2024.
“This marks an all-time monthly high in total wages and salaries paid by employers in Australia of $103.7 billion in September 2024,” ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.
“It compares with $97.5 billion in September 2023 and $90.9 billion in September 2022.”
Mr Jarvis said the growth in September followed the pattern seen over the past two years, where a range of industries paid periodic bonuses at the end of the September quarter.
He said growth in total wages and salaries reflected the combined effects of a range of factors, such as underlying wage growth, variations in hours worked, periodic and one-off payments like bonuses and backpay, and employment growth.
“Given these factors were stronger a year ago, annual growth in total wages and salaries to September of 6.3 percent was lower than annual growth to September 2023 of 7.3 percent.”
Mr Jarvis said all 19 industries saw a rise in total wages and salaries paid by employers between August and September 2024, though this was strongest in industries which usually pay periodic bonuses in September.
He said accommodation and food services saw the lowest annual growth, rising 2.8 percent over the past year, compared with 7.8 percent between September 2022 and 2023 when the industry was recovering from earlier pandemic-related impacts.
