What Should I Get Paid? How to Find Your Real Market Value in Australia

Every year, Hays, Robert Half, and a dozen other recruitment firms publish salary guides telling you what people in your role "typically earn." And every year, those numbers are inflated — often by 10–20%.

Here's why: recruitment agencies make money when you change jobs. Higher salary expectations mean you're more likely to feel underpaid, more likely to look for a new role, and more likely to use their services. Their data comes from a self-selected sample of employers who use recruitment agencies — typically larger, better-paying organisations. It doesn't represent the full market.

We built something different. Our Salary Benchmark Tool uses two of the most comprehensive datasets in Australia:

• ATO Taxation Statistics: real reported income from 14+ million Australian taxpayers — not surveys, not self-reported estimates, but actual tax return data by occupation
• ABS Employee Earnings and Hours: the Australian Bureau of Statistics' most detailed earnings survey, covering percentile distributions by occupation, industry, and state

We blend these sources, adjust for wage growth using the ABS Wage Price Index, and give you a salary range backed by government data — not recruitment marketing.

It takes about 10 seconds:

• Search your job title — type what you do (nurse, electrician, accountant, truck driver, teacher) and select your occupation from the results
• See your salary range — the tool shows the 10th to 90th percentile for your occupation, with the median (typical) salary highlighted
• Enter your salary — optionally enter what you currently earn to see where you sit in the distribution. Are you in the top 25%? Bottom 10%?
• Check the gender pay gap — see the male vs female median for your occupation, backed by ATO data

The tool covers 428 occupations across every industry in Australia — from CEOs to cleaners, surgeons to sales assistants.

Salary data is most useful when you see the range, not just an average. Our tool shows five key data points:

• 10th percentile: the bottom 10% of earners in your occupation earn less than this. If you're below this, you're almost certainly underpaid
• 25th percentile: entry-level or early-career earnings for your occupation
• Median (50th percentile): the middle — half earn more, half earn less. This is the most reliable "typical" salary
• 75th percentile: experienced workers, senior roles, or high-cost-of-living areas
• 90th percentile: top earners — specialists, managers, or roles in high-paying industries like mining or finance

We use the median rather than the average as the headline figure because averages are pulled up by a small number of very high earners. The median gives you a more honest picture of what most people actually earn.

For reference, the national median for full-time adult employees in Australia is approximately $96,304 per year (ABS Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025).

The benchmark shows what people in your occupation earn across Australia. Your actual salary will vary based on:

• Location: Sydney and Melbourne typically pay 5–15% more than regional areas for the same role. Perth and mining regions can pay significantly more for trades and technical roles
• Experience: a graduate accountant and a senior accountant with 15 years' experience are in the same occupation code but earn very different amounts. The percentile spread captures this
• Industry: a registered nurse in a public hospital earns differently from a registered nurse in aged care or a private clinic
• Employment type: casual employees receive 25% casual loading but miss out on paid leave. Full-time employees may earn less per hour but more in total compensation
• Enterprise agreements: if your workplace has an enterprise agreement, your pay may be above or below the award minimum

If you're significantly below the 25th percentile for your occupation, it's worth checking whether you're being paid correctly under your award. Use our Underpayment Checker to verify.

Our tool shows the gender pay gap for every occupation with sufficient data. Some findings from the ATO data:

• The gap exists in almost every occupation — 425 out of 428 occupations in our dataset have gender-disaggregated data
• The gap ranges from under 5% (some service and care roles) to over 20% (some trades, management, and professional roles)
• The gap is not just about different roles — it's within the same occupation code. A male accountant and a female accountant, same job title, and the male earns more on median

This data comes directly from ATO tax returns — it's not self-reported, it's not estimated, and it's not adjusted for hours worked (which is itself part of the problem). It's what people actually earned and reported to the tax office.

Whether you're negotiating a new role, asking for a raise, or just curious about where you stand, our Salary Benchmark Tool gives you the facts — backed by the two largest salary datasets in Australia.

No sign-up. No email required. Just search your job and see where you sit.