Approximately 58% of the Australian population is considered to be part of the middle class. What is the average annual income range for the Australian middle class? The average annual income range for the Australian middle class is between AUD 46,000 and AUD 140,000.
Middle-income class refers to households with income between 75% and 200% of the median national income. Upper-income class refers to households with income above 200% of the median national income.
In 2019-20, a household at the 90th percentile of the distribution – that is, a household that is richer than 90 per cent of households – had a net worth of $2.26 million. A household at the 10th percentile was worth just $36,900, or 61 times less.
For many of those surveyed, middle class is considered to equate to a salary of at least $100,000 or more. The label also potentially applies to white-collar workers, those who have an investment property or the house paid off, and those living in a major metropolitan area.
After all, netting $1 million doesn't happen overnight for most people. It's a hard net worth to achieve when you're in the actual middle class, which the Pew Research Center defines as a single person earning between $30,003 and $90,010 or a family of four taking home $60,000 to $180,000.
Different income barometers describe the middle class as having income from $50,000 to $150,000 or, in some instances, $42,000 to $125,000. Other measures of middle class set the upper-income mark at $250,000.
The average annual income range for the Australian middle class is between AUD 46,000 and AUD 140,000.
So if you're on $100k or more, congratulations, you're in the top 20% of Aussie income earners. If not, don't worry, you're in the good company of 80% of Aussies.
Officially, the average wage is $75,000 a year, but that is skewed by a small number of very high income earners. In reality, around 70 per cent of tax payers actually earn less than the average wage. If pensioners are included in this count, four out of five Australians earn less than the average.
The Australian said it would mean “2.5 million middle income Australians will pay thousands of dollars in additional tax,” but describes middle income Australians as individuals earning between $120,000 and $160,000 a year.
The average earnings of those in the top 10% were roughly $173,000 in 2020, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Landing in the top 10% is a fairly attainable goal for upwardly mobile Americans.
Our 2022 Poverty in Australia Snapshot found that there are 3.3 million people (13.4%) living below the poverty line of 50% of median income, including 761,000 children (16.6%). In dollar figures, the poverty line works out to $489 a week for a single adult and $1,027 a week for a couple with 2 children.
> Five classes can be identified in Australian society. > They are: 'established affluent', 'emergent affluent', 'mobile middle', 'established middle, and 'established working'.
$100,000/year is above an average salary and if you're frugal enough, on $100,000/year, you should be able to live a good life and save some money too. Usually if you consider living in desirable locations of cities like Melbourne and Sydney, most of your income will be consumed in the house rents.
So a taxpayer with an income of $80,000 a year is therefore in the top 20 per cent of Australians.
Someone earning $200,000 a year would be among the top 3.5 per cent of Australians who fall into the top tax bracket which cuts in at $180,000 a year.
An Australian earning less than $94,000 a year is now considered to be below-average and really needs a big pay rise to cope with the cost of living crisis.
The average household gross income is $121,108, however the top 20% of households earn 48% of all income. With the bottom 20% who are left with 4% of Australia's income.
Average net worth for all Australian households in 2019–20 was $1.04 million. Total average liabilities for households saw a statistically significant increase from $189,500 in 2017–18 to $203,800 in 2019–20. Three in four (75%) households had debt in 2019–20.
The study found that the share of people in middle-income households fell from 64 per cent to 61 per cent between the mid-1980s and the mid-2010s. “In Australia, it's even lower, at 58 per cent,” says Jason Pallant, marketing lecturer at Swinburne University.
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts.
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate.
Gallup has, for a number of years, asked Americans to place themselves -- without any guidance -- into five social classes: upper, upper-middle, middle, working and lower. These five class labels are representative of the general approach used in popular language and by researchers.