Total wages and salaries paid by employers were $103.9 billion in June 2025, up 5.9 per cent from June 2024, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said: 'The 5.9 per cent annual growth in total wages and salaries paid by employers between June 2024 and June 2025 was similar to the annual growth we saw to June 2024, when wages grew by 6.0 per cent.'
Aggregate measures of wages can be heavily influenced by differences in the number of persons paid, hours worked, seasonal payments and one-off events in any given month.
By adding together 12 months of wages and salaries paid in a financial year, and comparing the annual growth, we can gain better insights into underlying growth.
'Total wages and salaries paid by employers totalled $1,219 billion in the 2024-25 financial year, growing 5.9 per cent from the 2023-24 financial year.
'This was lower than the 7.0 per cent between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 years.' Mr Crick said.
| 2022-23 ($b) | 2023-24 ($b) | 2024-25 ($b) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| July | 85.8 | 91.9 | 98.1 |
| August | 87.3 | 93.8 | 99.4 |
| September | 90.5 | 97.2 | 103.2 |
| October | 87.6 | 94.4 | 99.8 |
| November | 89.8 | 96.9 | 102.1 |
| December | 89.6 | 96.1 | 101.4 |
| January | 86.3 | 92.4 | 97.9 |
| February | 91.5 | 96.8 | 103.5 |
| March | 92.5 | 99.0 | 104.4 |
| April | 91.2 | 97.6 | 103.2 |
| May | 91.0 | 96.8 | 102.4 |
| June | 92.6 | 98.1 | 103.9 |
'The Health care and social assistance services industry held the largest share of total wages and salaries paid by employers, with 14.6 per cent of the 2024-25 financial year estimate,' Mr Crick said.
'This industry's rise of $14.8 billion from the 2023-24 financial year, was 21.6 per cent of the total increase in wages and salaries paid by all employers in the 2024-25 financial year.'
The Public administration and safety industry saw the second largest growth in wages and salaries in dollar terms in the 2024-25 financial year of $8.5 billion, and also had the strongest increase from 2023-24 financial year growth (up $1.3 billion).
The stronger 2024-25 growth was influenced by large state government pay rises, one-off payments such as backpay, and temporary jobs which supported the federal election in May 2025.
| Financial year 2023-24 ($b) | Financial year 2024-25 ($b) | |
|---|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 15.2 | 14.8 |
| Public administration and safety | 7.2 | 8.5 |
| Construction | 7.3 | 6.7 |
| Education and training | 6.8 | 5.5 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 6.0 | 5.0 |
| Financial and insurance services | 3.8 | 3.6 |
| Manufacturing | 4.6 | 3.1 |
| Retail trade | 3.3 | 2.8 |
| Transport, postal and warehousing | 3.0 | 2.7 |
| Wholesale trade | 2.9 | 2.6 |
| Electricity, gas, water and waste services | 2.1 | 2.2 |
| Other services | 2.4 | 2.1 |
| Mining | 3.7 | 2.0 |
| Administrative and support services | 2.0 | 1.8 |
| Accommodation and food services | 2.1 | 1.7 |
| Information media and telecommunications | 0.6 | 1.1 |
| Rental, hiring and real estate services | 1.2 | 0.9 |
| Arts and recreation services | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 0.3 | 0.6 |
a. The financial year estimate is the sum of monthly total wages and salaries paid in that year. The change is calculated from the difference between financial year estimates.
b. Industries are ranked by descending 2024-25 financial year growth.
