Australian full-time earnings posted their slowest six months since 2022, and in the same release the gender pay gap fell to its lowest recorded level

$2,083.70 a week.

That is average weekly ordinary time earnings for a full-time adult in Australia in May, seasonally adjusted, and it stands 3.7 percent above the same month a year earlier. The Australian Bureau of Statistics published the figure at half past eleven on Thursday morning, Canberra time. Sean Crick, the bureau's head of labour statistics, said growth over the six months to May was 1.6 percent, the lowest six-monthly growth since May 2022, and that the annual rate was the lowest since November 2022.

The public sector did better than the private one. Public sector earnings rose 2.3 percent over the six months against 1.4 percent in the private sector, and on the annual measure the gap is wider still, 4.4 percent against 3.5 percent. In levels that is $2,263.10 a week in the public sector and $2,034.10 in the private.

The pay gap moved by three tenths of a point of growth

The gender pay gap in full-time ordinary time earnings is 11.3 percent, down from 11.5 percent in November 2025, and the bureau describes that as the lowest point it has recorded. The arithmetic underneath it is small. Female full-time ordinary time earnings rose 3.8 percent over the year, to $1,934.50 a week. Male earnings rose 3.5 percent, to $2,181.00.

The bureau's own caution

Average Weekly Earnings measures the level of earnings at a point in time, and the release states that movements in it can be affected by the composition of the workforce as well as by pay itself. The factors it names include the mix of full-time, part-time, casual and junior employees, the occupational mix within and across industries, and the distribution of employment between industries. For a measure of pay alone the bureau points readers to the quarterly Wage Price Index, which is built to strip composition out. That index is not part of this release.

Mining pays the most of any industry, at $3,224.20 a week for full-time adults, and accommodation and food services pays the least, at $1,509.90, a difference of more than double. Transport, postal and warehousing recorded the strongest six month growth at 4.3 percent, followed by wholesale trade at 3.2 percent. Queensland led the states at 2.5 percent, with the Northern Territory next at 2.2 percent. Every state and industry rose.

Set the annual figure against prices. The bureau reported on 29 July that the consumer price index rose 3.8 percent in the twelve months to June. Earnings on this measure grew 3.7 percent in the twelve months to May. The reference periods differ by a month, so the comparison is rough, and on it the average full-time worker is running level with prices rather than ahead of them.