Australian wages rise 0.5% in March quarter 2019

The seasonally adjusted Wage Price Index (WPI) rose 0.5 per cent in the March quarter 2019 and 2.3 per cent through the year, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Seasonally adjusted private sector wage growth was 0.5 per cent, and 0.4 per cent for the public sector in the March quarter.

ABS Chief Economist Bruce Hockman said: “Annual wages in seasonally adjusted terms grew 2.3 per cent for the third quarter in a row. The main contributors to growth over the quarter were regularly scheduled wage rises in the Health care and social assistance and Education and training industries, as was the case in the previous March quarter.”

In original terms, annual wages growth to the March quarter 2019 by industry ranged from 1.8 per cent for Construction and the Information, media and telecommunication services industries to 3.0 per cent for Health care and social assistance.

Western Australia recorded the lowest through the year wage growth of 1.6 per cent while Victoria recorded the highest of 2.7 per cent.

/ABS Public Release. View in full here.