Pay rise: Australia’s biggest winners and losers

New research into the median hourly pay of Aussie workers over the last 12 months has revealed which jobs received the biggest wage increase. See if your role is on the list.

Exclusive: Cyber experts, carpenters and labourers saw the biggest pay rises in the last 12 months, while store managers, pharmacists and accountants were the biggest losers.

IT operations managers topped the list with their median hourly rate increasing by 27 per cent. A shortage of tech experts combined with an increase in demand from businesses wanting to improve their cyber security could explain the huge jump.

Warehouse assistants, drivers and sales managers also saw healthy pay bumps.

Carpenters achieved the sixth biggest pay rise, with their hourly rate increasing by more than a fifth.

Carpenters, Khoen Peters, 18, and Sam McGradey, 32, from Edge Projects Co working on a project in Melrose Park. Picture: Matt Loxton

Those who fared the worst were retail store managers, pharmacists and accountants, whose hourly wage increased on average by just one per cent or less.

Aged care assistants were also at the bottom of the table due to the increase of people going into the sector – many of them junior – following the 15 per cent pay rise subsidised by the government, bringing down the overall median hourly rate.

The data from Employment Hero, a payroll and employee engagement platform, looked at the median hourly pay of 1.5 million Aussie workers from 150,000 small and medium-sized businesses over the last 12 months.

CEO Ben Thompson said it was too soon to tell how wages would perform this year, but the cost of living crisis hit people hard in 2023.

Employment Hero CEO Ben Thompson said the cost of living crisis has hit people hard. Picture: Supplied

“Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as continuing to increase Australian workers’ wages to keep up with these cost of living increases because we need to evaluate the broader employment impact this has and the flow-on effects on inflation rates,” Mr Thompson said.

December’s monthly figures showed that those working in science and technology earned the most, $59.68 an hour, compared to those in retail, hospitality or tourism who earned $32.91 an hour.

The median hourly pay for Aussies was $38.15, up 7.8 per cent on the year before.

Queensland and Tasmania saw the greatest year on year wage growth of nine per cent, while the NT saw the smallest jump of 4.8 per cent.

And, depending on where you lived you could be paid more – or less – for doing the same work.

It found those living in the ACT get the highest rates of pay on average $42.27 an hour, with the Northern Territory next ($40.09), NSW ($39.47), WA (38.07), Queensland ($37.50), Victoria ($37.48), SA ($37.40) and Tasmania last ($36).

As to be expected, older workers earned more. There was a jump in pay last month for those aged 65 and a drop for those under 18, most likely due to employers placing a premium on experience.

Mr Thompson said workforce shortages were behind the wage increases for some professions.

Carpenter Sam McGradey, 32, a hipages member and owner of Edge Projects Co, said a shortage of skilled carpenters, combined with high demand in people wanting their homes renovated, was driving up wages.

He said he would expect to pay a young, qualified subcontractor between $55 to $70 an hour.

“The sky’s the limit if they have the skills,” Mr McGradey said. “I’d love to have another two carpenters, but it’s not realistic.”

Trade-based organisation Australian Carpentry said a lack of support had seen carpenters leave the industry prematurely, leading to a shortage.

The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) said it remained absolutely critical that construction workers received pay rises that help them keep up with the soaring cost of living.