Average Salary in Australia, and What's Normal at 18 to 25

Every so often a headline says the average Australian now earns more than $100,000 a year. If you're 21 and your payslip looks nothing like that, it's easy to read it as a sign you're behind.

That headline number is real, but it measures something narrower than it sounds, and it isn't the pay of a typical person, let alone a typical person your age. Once you know what it counts, you can find the figure that actually fits you.

The average full-time salary is about $108,000

The number behind the headlines is the ABS's average weekly ordinary time earnings for full-time adults. In May 2026 it was $2,083.70 a week, which is about $108,000 over a year.

It counts the pay for normal hours, before tax, for adults working full-time. Overtime, part-time workers and casuals on a few shifts a week are all outside it. It's also an average, or mean: every full-time adult's weekly pay added up and divided by the number of people.

Most full-time workers earn less than the average

An average gets pulled up by the people at the top. A few very large salaries add a lot to the total without adding many people, so the average ends up above what most people earn. The same distinction matters when comparing super balances by age.

The median avoids that. It's the pay of the person in the middle: line everyone up from lowest to highest pay, and half earn more than them and half earn less. The ABS's May 2025 survey of employers gives both for full-time employees.

That middle pay works out to about $98,000 a year. More than 6 in 10 full-time employees earned below the average, so for a sense of a typical full-time salary, the median is the closer number. (The May 2026 average above comes from a different, more frequent ABS survey, so the two averages don't match exactly.)

What's normal at 18 to 25

Experience, occupation and hours worked all affect the comparison. Some awards also set junior rates, a percentage of the adult rate, for workers under 21, and apprentices have rates of their own.

The ABS's August 2025 employee survey gives the middle weekly pay for full-time workers in each age group.

So if you're 22 and working full-time on around $1,200 a week before tax, you're right in the middle for your age. At 25 to 34, the middle full-time pay is $1,648 a week, roughly $450 more.

Many people aged 20 to 24 aren't full-time, though. Counting part-time and casual jobs too, the middle pay for that age group was $950 a week. A student working a few shifts may earn much less.

Compare like with like

Before you put your pay next to any figure, check you're comparing the same thing:

• Before tax or after. These figures are all before tax. What lands in your account is smaller, and take-home pay explains how much smaller. Your payslip shows both amounts.
• Weekly or yearly. A yearly figure is the weekly one multiplied by 52.
• Full-time or all workers. A part-time or casual job will sit well below a full-time figure for the same hourly rate.
• Salary or package. Super is paid on top of a salary, so an offer quoted as a total package including super has less cash in it. Our guide to reading a job offer shows how to separate them.

If you're paid by the hour, the more useful check is whether your rate is right for your job. The award rates guide shows how to look up the minimum for your role, and the minimum wage guide covers the national floor.

Plan around your pay, not the average

How your pay compares with an average doesn't change what your rent and bills cost. Planning starts from the amount that actually reaches your account each payday, and the first few pays of a job are a good time to set that up. Our first job budget walks through giving each pay its jobs.

Clova gives each pay a plan for bills, spending and goals, using the amount that lands rather than a salary on paper. It also puts each purchase in a category, so you can see where your pay is going without adding it up yourself.

Your pay at 22 is a starting point, not a verdict. The figures compare age groups; your next steps depend on your work and circumstances.

A note from us

Comparing yourself with an average salary can make a normal start feel like falling behind. We're building Clova around the pay you actually have, so each payday has a plan that fits it, whatever the headlines say.