To some extent it depends on fluidity of membership of the top 1% (which in Australia means earning a pretax income of at least A$246,000).
According to the ATO, the top 1% of income earners in Australia start at $237,300 but average $438,100.
From the top 5% to the top 1%
Salaries start to jump significantly the closer you get to the top 1%. You'll start to see dramatic shifts in the top 5%, where the EPI found the average earners significantly increased to $343,000 in 2020, up from $324,000 the year before.
If you make $400,000 a year living in Australia, you will be taxed $158,667. That means that your net pay will be $241,333 per year, or $20,111 per month. Your average tax rate is 39.7% and your marginal tax rate is 47.0%.
For the youngest generation, $428,474 is needed to classify yourself as rich. That's more than six times greater than the median personal income of $52,338, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
According to the IRS, a $400,000 or more annual household income represents America's top 1.8% income-earners.
According to recent studies, to be in the top 1% of earners in the U.S., you need to bring in an annual salary of at least $597,815. This means that the other 99% of earners in the U.S. make less than this amount per year.
Income of the Top 1%
In order to be considered in the top 1% of wage earners in the U.S., you'd need to have wages of $758,434, according to information from the progressive Economic Policy Institute (EPI), using wage data for 2019. By comparison, the average worker in the U.S. earns just $57,535 annually.
Across the US, the average income for the top 2% of all earners is $206,000.
If you make $200,000 a year living in Australia, you will be taxed $64,667. That means that your net pay will be $135,333 per year, or $11,278 per month. Your average tax rate is 32.3% and your marginal tax rate is 47.0%.
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.
It then goes on to describe those middle income Australians as individuals earning between $120,000 and $160,000 a year.
A study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), found that the average earnings of those in the top 10% were roughly $173,000 in 2020. As the numbers reflect the household's top wage earner, you're looking at quite a jump from Americans in the first 90%, who according to the EPI earned an average of $40,000 in 2020.
The wealthiest 5% had average wealth of $6 million and the wealth of the highest 1% averaged $14 million. Ownership of some asset classes is even more concentrated. The highest 20% of the wealth-holders own over 80% of all wealth in investment properties and shares and over 60% of all superannuation assets.
$570,003 is the cutoff for a top 1% household income in the United States in 2022. For a single earner, the cutoff is $401,622.
How much money do you need to be considered rich? According to Schwab's 2022 Modern Wealth Survey (opens in new tab), Americans believe it takes an average net worth of $2.2 million to qualify a person as being wealthy. (Net worth is the sum of your assets minus your liabilities.)
Ultra high net worth individuals: population of global 1 percent 2021, by country. Over 22 million individuals residing in the United States belonged to the global top one percent of ultra high net worth individuals worldwide in 2021. China ranked second, with over five million top one percent wealth holders globally.
The difference between perception and facts is even more pronounced when looking at households with an annual income of more than $500,000. While the median weighted responses from survey participants suggest that one-fifth of U.S. households belong to that bracket, it's actually the oft-cited top 1%.
And because of racial and gender wage gaps, women are less likely to reach the six-figure threshold compared with men. Just 11% of women make $100,000 or more on a national level, whereas 21% of men do.
Annual income often comes in rounded numbers, as seen in the spikes sticking out at each $10,000. More round numbers at the $150,000 and $200,000 marks. About 2% of employed people made $300,000 or more in total income.
A $400,000 a year household income puts you in America's top 1.8% income-earners according to the IRS. Therefore, by most metrics, you are considered rich with this income.
If you make $120,000 a year living in Australia, you will be taxed $31,867. That means that your net pay will be $88,133 per year, or $7,344 per month. Your average tax rate is 26.6% and your marginal tax rate is 39.0%.
If you make $150,000 a year living in Australia, you will be taxed $43,567. That means that your net pay will be $106,433 per year, or $8,869 per month. Your average tax rate is 29.0% and your marginal tax rate is 39.0%.