Country Overview

Wages and Prices in Australia

Australia combines a high PPP-adjusted wage with an overall price level below the U.S. benchmark, providing a useful reference for comparing wages, categories and historical change.

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Wage history

How Wages Have Changed in Australia

Explore Australia’s PPP-adjusted annual wage history using a reported range rather than a filled-in series.

PPP-adjusted annual wage (USD)2000–2025 · touch or hover points for the selected range

Price levels

Price Levels in Australia

Compare everyday price levels using the United States benchmark of 100.

Overall

92.70Below U.S.7.3% below U.S.

Food

101.00Near U.S.1.0% above U.S.

Clothing

69.50Below U.S.30.5% below U.S.

Housing

91.80Below U.S.8.2% below U.S.

Health

86.90Below U.S.13.1% below U.S.

Transport

99.30Near U.S.0.7% below U.S.

Recreation

95.20Below U.S.4.8% below U.S.

Restaurants

115.00Above U.S.15.0% above U.S.

How to Read This View

Use 100 as the reference

The United States is fixed at 100 for every category. A value of 92.7 means that Australia’s price level is about 7.3% below the U.S. benchmark, while a value of 115 means it is approximately 15% higher.

Compare categories, not household bills

Each row represents a separate spending category. The values show relative price levels rather than the actual amount a household spends. A higher restaurants index does not necessarily mean that total living costs are higher by the same amount.

Check the selected year

The year buttons update all displayed categories together. Missing observations are shown as unavailable and are never replaced with values from another year.

Relative context

Australia in Context

See how Australia’s wage and selected price level compare with the OECD median and the United States.

Average Annual Wage

Australia$72,018

OECD Median$60,690

United States$86,977

Selected Price Level

Australia92.70

OECD Median67.25

United States100

Read the placement

Australia’s 2025 PPP-adjusted annual wage is 18.7% above the OECD median. Its 2024 Overall price index of 92.7 is 7.3% below the U.S. benchmark, meaning that it combines a higher wage with a lower price level in this dataset. Wage and price observations refer to separately labelled years and should not be read as a household affordability score.

Country note

Understanding Wages and Prices in Australia

Australia is presented with a 2025 common-year wage reading and a separately labelled 2024 price profile. The visible historical line shows the reported sequence rather than a smoothed path, so any pauses or changes remain readable as data observations.

Category detail for Australia is led by Restaurants at 115.00, ahead of Food (101.00) and Transport (99.30), while the overall index remains below the United States reference. The category spread is shown as reported, without adjusting any value toward the aggregate.