CountryGal according to the Australian Taxation Office the median income for Australian adults is $26,000 per annum.

I would hope that it is understood that far too many earn much less than $26.000 a year.
Union bosses, those evil people who had the drought relief convoy to the bush, are aware of many who truly are working poor.
My comments in another thread about workers being paid far less than those working along side them is a start.
Drought has driven them away from family to earn off farm incomes ,running two homes is not easy at anytime, now much harder.
Once civil construction workers in the bush received extra pay to make up for very long hours, rare trips home, and poor living conditions.
Now they too are just starting to be victims of workchoices.
Kids who make an effort to get some place in life got it in the first wave , can anyone tell me hamburger chains need to take penalty rates from kids to stay profitable?
Thanks union bosses we need some one on our side.

Hi Billie, not that I dont believe you, but can you provide a link? I find this interesting as the 2003/04 figures have only just been published by the ATO - certainly not up to date. Most of their figures also include individuals that made a loss (ie business people), which will of course bring down the median (and mean) significantly. The mean income in 2003/04 was $35950.
http://www.ato.gov.au/corporate/content.asp?doc=/content/70906.htm

CountryGal I can't provide a link. I watched the telecast of Michael Carmody, former Deputy Commissioner of Taxation, talking to the National Press Club in March 2006, you can purchase a video/transcript from them. I remember the figure because I had heard it from people working in the tax office earlier. He also said that Australia has a very high rate of people not submitting tax returns at about 64%. I think ACOSS or Andrew Leigh have used the $26,000 in published reports.

Remember the median is when half the population earn above and half earn below. The mean is add up all incomes and divide by the number in the population.

Country Gal

You are correct the latest published figures I know (2003/4) of show a median wage of $34,149.

New South Wales 35,479
Victoria 34,215
Queensland 32,308
South Australia 33,200
Western Australia 33,540
Tasmania 31,397
Northern Territory 37,669
Australian Capital Territory 41,385
Unknown Australia 15,986
TOTAL AUST 34,149


Note: Median not calculated for areas with < 1000 Wage & Salary Earners.
Source: ATO Individual Income Tax Return Data

This is still significantly less than the average, and note it does not take into account remote areas.

It also means that when adjusted for inflation there has been no increase in real wages between 2001 and 2004. Given that anecdotal evidence says that wages have declined under no choices, is this really the best we have ever had?

I think I found the anomaly, the figures I quoted were for full time wage and salary earners. Of course the 100s of thousands of part time workers earn less. So Billies 26,000 make sense to me.