{"id":853602,"date":"2026-08-13T09:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T09:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853602\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T09:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T09:16:10","slug":"wage-growth-aussies-hit-by-four-year-slump-in-fresh-cost-of-living-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853602\/","title":{"rendered":"Wage growth: Aussies hit by four-year slump in fresh cost-of-living blow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian<\/a> full-time workers are facing a deepening cost-of-living squeeze<\/a>, with wage growth slumping to its lowest level in four years.<\/p>\n

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)<\/a> shows average weekly ordinary time earnings for full-time adults rose 1.6 per cent to $2083.70 in the six months to May.<\/p>\n

\"Generic<\/p>\n

Australian full-time workers are facing a deepening cost-of-living squeeze, with wage growth slumping to its lowest level in four years.\u00a0AFR\/Louie Douvis<\/p>\n

Annual wage growth to May was 3.7 per cent, marking the lowest annual increase since November 2022.<\/p>\n

ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick said public sector workers fared noticeably better than those in the private market.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic sector average weekly earnings rose by 2.3 per cent while the private sector rose by 1.4 per cent,\u201d Crick said.<\/p>\n

Transport<\/a>, postal, and warehousing workers recorded the nation\u2019s strongest six-month wage growth at 4.3 per cent, followed by wholesale trade at 3.2 per cent.<\/p>\n

Across Australia, Queensland<\/a> led all states and territories with a 2.5 per cent increase.<\/p>\n

In a rare bright spot, the gender pay gap in average weekly ordinary full-time earnings fell to a record low of 11.3 per cent, down from 11.5 per cent in November 2025.<\/p>\n

On paper, 3.7 per cent annual wage growth almost matches 3.8 per cent inflation – but on the ground, families are falling behind<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Household essentials remain stubbornly expensive<\/a> after years of price hikes. <\/p>\n

And with private sector wage growth slowing to 1.4 per cent over six months, paychecks simply aren\u2019t keeping up.<\/p>\n

The softening figures confirm the Reserve Bank of Australia\u2019s (RBA) series of rate hikes is cooling the labour market – offering cold comfort to those with mortgages.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, RBA Governor Michele Bullock confirmed the board voted unanimously to hold the cash rate at 4.35 per cent.<\/p>\n

However, updated central bank forecasts show inflation is not expected to hit the mid-point of its 2 to 3 per cent target range until June 2028.<\/p>\n

RBA modelling indicates borrowing costs will likely remain elevated around 4.4 to 4.5 per cent well into 2027 and 2028, effectively killing off hopes of an imminent rate cut.<\/p>\n

But despite the slowing conditions, Bullock warned that further rate rises haven\u2019t been ruled out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already acted three times, and we will go again if we need to,\u201d Bullock said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHigh inflation hurts all Australians, especially the most vulnerable, and that is why bringing inflation down is our priority.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian full-time workers are facing a deepening cost-of-living squeeze, with wage growth slumping to its lowest level in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-853602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}