The surprising age when Aussie pay levels peak – and the kind of house you can really buy on that sort of money

Australians typically see their wage levels peak in their late 40s, new tax data shows.

Alarmingly, people in their thirties are not earning enough to get onto the property ladder if they want to buy their own home and have it paid off at retirement age.

And those in their late 20s earn a similar amount to baby boomers who continue to work into their 70s.

The Treasury Department’s Tax Expenditures and Insights Statement has revealed the average incomes of Australian workers by age group.

Those in the 45-49 age group had the highest average salary of $96,200 during the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

At the time, this was 4.5 percent higher than the average full-time salary of $92,030 in Australia.

Converted to 2024 earnings, people in their late 40s would now typically earn $104,549, based on a 4.5 percent premium above an existing average full-time salary of $100,017.

Emeritus Professor Mark Wooden, a labor economics expert at the University of Melbourne, said professionals in their late 40s had often been in an industry for 20 years and were more productive.

“They’ve been around for 20 years, you’ve invested a lot of time in them as they’ve learned the trade,” Prof Wooden told Daily Mail Australia.

“So the last thing you want is for them to leave and for them to hire a younger, new person who then has to learn it all over again.”

But Prof Wooden suggested that salaries for professionals working in the white-collar sector are likely to peak later in their 50s.

“Where it peaks will probably vary greatly depending on the profession,” he said.

‘If you have a white-collar job I would expect the peak to be later than the late 1940s – your career will probably last longer, you won’t be doing manual labor so your body won’t let you down. problem.

“If the kinds of skills are cognitive skills, which you develop with experience, you would expect wages to continue to rise.”

Someone earning a peak salary of $96,200 could now buy a $625,300 home with a 20 percent mortgage down payment.

With that kind of borrowing limit you could buy an apartment, but not a house at the average price in the markets of Australia’s major capital.

Workers in their early 50s had the second highest average salary at $95,500, followed by workers aged 40 to 44 at $90,600.

Those aged 55-59 earned $88,400, more than those ages 35-39 with $80,500.

Older workers ages 60 to 64 who were nearing retirement earned $75,200.

They defeated the Age range 30-34 years at $69,400.

A 20 deposit per mortgage would buy just a $451,100 house, which would be enough for a small city unit in Melbourne, but not a house.

That’s bad news for those hoping to buy a house with a 30-year mortgage and have it paid off by the time they retire in their 60s.

Australia’s youngest adult workers produced the most taxpayers with 1.815 million 18-24 year olds – the age at which someone is likely to work part-time and obtain a university degree.

Their average wage of $36,500 was less than half the $75,200 average for people in their early 60s who had access to their pensions.

Professor Wooden said older workers on high wages have typically been with a company for a long time, but added that these people would often struggle to find another job with the same pay if they were to make cuts.

“Many of the over-60s who are working have had the same job for a long time,” he says.

‘Those people have quite high salaries – it’s unlikely they’ll be cut unless the company actively wants them to leave, but if a company goes through a recession, if an older worker loses their job, then on average it’s very unlikely they’ll will do that. find another job and earn about the same as they do.’

Workers in their late 20s earned a similar amount to baby boomers still working in their 70s.

Their average salary of $58,400 was comparable to that of the 70-74 year olds at $55,100 and the over 75 group at $56,600.

The Treasury bill also divided personal taxable incomes into deciles, or ten equal parts.

High income earners with incomes over $136,700 were in the top decile.

Above-average earners with incomes of $100,401 to $136,700 were in the second-highest decile, while those with incomes of $79,801 to $100,400 were in the third-highest decile.

As of August 2024, just 13.1 percent of workers were unionized, separate data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows.

Just over a third or 36 percent of professionals worked from home.

Australia’s average or median salary in August was $72,592, with this figure including full- and part-time employees.

For full-time workers, the median salary was $88,400, compared to $35,937 for part-time workers.