The average Aussie said they would need to earn significantly more money than the median salary to feel wealthy. According to a nationally representative survey of 1,081 by Finder, the average Australian would need to earn a whopping $336,516 per year to feel rich.
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.
Most high-income earners believe income of $454,000 makes an upper class household, while middle earners believe $280,000 is enough to be counted as upper class. However, low-income households that participated in the study believe $549,000 is enough to be considered upper class.
The average annual income range for the Australian middle class is between AUD 46,000 and AUD 140,000.
All of the top 10 jobs earn an average income of over $155,000 a year, before tax or the Medicare levy are factored in. This is based on the mean, rather than the median average for each job. We've also taken a look at the average take-home pay, based on income tax rates for the 2022-2023 financial year.
$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.
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. Mr Derbas suggested in the video that singles living in the Harbour City would do incredibly well on the same salary.
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.
Average Australian Salaries in 2023
A taxable income that was $131,501 or higher was within the top 10% of earners in Australia last year. About 5% of taxpayers had incomes above $180,000.
It is higher than the median, meaning it is in the top 50% of salaries.
The term upper class is a socioeconomic term used to describe those who reside on the highest levels of the social ladder above the middle and working or lower classes. They generally have the highest status in society and hold a great deal of wealth.
Pew defines the upper class as adults whose annual household income is more than double the national median. In 2022, the national median household income is around $75,000, up from $68,000 in 2021.
So a taxpayer with an income of $80,000 a year is therefore in the top 20 per cent of Australians.
A nationally representative survey of 1,081 respondents revealed the average Aussie would need to earn a whopping $336,516 per year to feel rich. That's more than six times greater than the median personal income of $52,338, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
> Five classes can be identified in Australian society. > They are: 'established affluent', 'emergent affluent', 'mobile middle', 'established middle, and 'established working'.
Households with a net worth of $1 million or more may be classified as members of the upper class, depending on the definition of class used.
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.
According to the ATO, the top 1% of income earners in Australia start at $237,300 but average $438,100. Inspired by this article from the US, readers asked me to do an Australian version. Below I interviewed some households with incomes above $250,000 for singles or above $400,000 if a couple.
So with 120k, you are looking at close to 7k a month take home. That is enough money to support a family so for a single person, that should be plenty.
The average earnings of the top 20% are 12x the average earnings of the bottom 20% and the wealth of the average household in the top 20% is 93x the average wealth of those in the bottom 20%. The average household gross income is $121,108, however the top 20% of households earn 48% of all income.
In the United States, the upper class, as distinguished from the rich, is often considered to consist of those families that have for many generations enjoyed top social status based on their leadership in society—also referred to as old money.
This is despite the fact that WA had the highest percentage of people who earned more than $200,000, with 21 per cent reporting they did so, followed by ACT and NSW on 17 per cent. Tasmania had the lowest percentage of those on $200k, with only 5 per cent earning this amount or more.
There aren't many of them, just 110,613 — 82,258 men and 28,355 women. Only 39,209 have taxable incomes of more than $500,000, and of these only 14,467 have taxable incomes of more than $1 million.
The average Australian would need to earn over $300,000 a year to consider themselves as officially "rich", new research has found.