Survey reveals eye watering salaries of Aussie lawyers, finance workers and consultants

Exactly how much both graduates and more experienced workers are earning at some of the best known companies and industries has been unveiled.

The salaries of industries such as finance, law and consulting have been revealed in a survey. Picture: Supplied

Aussie graduates are scoring lucrative salaries straight out of university, while 10 years in certain fields can see people earn as much as $450,000 annually.

A survey of 2500 workers from The Aussie Corporate has revealed the salaries of lawyers, finance workers and consultants across Australia.

Finance roles such as for newly-qualified analysts commanded the biggest salaries in their first year, with anywhere between $125,000 and $145,000 up for grabs from the big firms such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and UBS.

For first-year lawyers in Sydney, they earned $97,000 on average, with that number jumping to $107,000 a year later.

But if you are from Adelaide, first-year lawyers get short-changed with an annual salary of $74,250, according to the survey.

Meanwhile, tech companies – including the likes of Amazon, Google, Atlassian and Canva – are paying between $147,000 and $350,000 for graduates, with some salaries including stock options and end-of-year bonuses, The Australian revealed last year.

Finance and tech are some of the most lucrative careers. Picture: Getty Images

Starting off working in management consulting for the big four accounting firms wasn’t as lucrative as law or finance, with Deloitte graduates earning $66,000, EY offering $69,200, KPMG coughing up $67,000 and PwC paying $73,000, according to the survey.

But with 10 years of experience, salaries in this industry jump to $200,000 annually in Sydney, $178,000 in Melbourne, $194,000 in Brisbane and $158,000 in Canberra.

With the cost of living crisis and skills shortages in some fields, Finder’s head of consumer research Graham Cooke said the higher wages were to be expected.

“Wages in Australia tend to be relatively high compared to other countries. Cost of living is also high and so highly-skilled graduate jobs do tend to have pretty good wages straight away,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

“Technical jobs and analytical jobs, you know, programming coding jobs, tend to have higher starting salaries than a lot of careers do”.

Finder’s head of consumer research Graham Cooke. Picture: Supplied

The survey also revealed the pay packets of experienced professionals, with lawyers that have more than 10 years in the field earning on average $275,000 in Sydney, which drops to $149,000 in Adelaide.

Law firm Baker and McKenzie paid its senior staff the most at $450,000, according to the survey, while Allen and Overy shelled out the most for graduates with a pay packet of $115,000.

Investment bank Credit Suisse pays its directors $450,000 on average, the survey found, while entry level analysts rake in an extraordinary $180,000 on average and associates are paid $250,000.

Some young graduates are making the big bucks. Picture: iStock

Secrecy surrounding salaries in Australia has been rife and The Aussie Corporate aims to tackle this issue.

“The purpose of our Salary Guide is to steer you on what you might expect in your pay packet and ultimately advance pay transparency in corporate Australia,” The Aussie Corporate said.

The survey also revealed that government roles are earning up to 15 per cent less than private practice at the same levels.

However, most of the salaries don’t compare to the whopping amount of money that an Australian needs to earn to feel rich.

The amount Aussies need to earn to feel rich is eye watering. Picture: Getty Images

If you don’t earn $336,516 per year, then your peers won’t think you’re well-off, according to data from Finder.

The findings shone a light on the different expectations of what it means to be successful depending on how old you are.

Generation Z – who are aged between 10 and 25 – listed the highest amount of money in order to be a rich person.

For the youngest generation, $428,474 is needed to classify yourself as rich.

That’s more than six times greater than the median personal income of $52,338, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.