SEEK’s October salary report shows increase to the wages of lower earners

SEEK has released its Advertised Salary Index (ASI) for October, revealing that in the past year (end of October 2021 – end of October 2022), lower-paying jobs have seen a greater increase in wages than higher-paying jobs.

Senior economist at SEEK Matt Cowgill commented: “The lowest paid jobs have seen the biggest rise in advertised salaries in the past year, reflecting strong demand for workers in relatively low-paid industries and also the larger-than-usual minimum wage rise in July this year.”

The ASI attributes the steep salary growth to a higher demand for labour in lower-paying jobs and increases to minimum wages that took effect a few months ago.

Some industries saw bigger growth than others. Trades and services experienced the largest increase, with salaries rising 6.2 per cent since October 2021. Administration and office support (5.6 per cent) and design and architecture (5.5 per cent) were the second and third largest increases for the year.

Mr Cowgill continued: “Although advertised salary growth remains solid, it’s not keeping up with the cost of living. It’s also not continuing to accelerate. This is bad news for workers in the short term but will reassure fiscal and monetary policymakers that we’re not seeing a wage-price spiral that would further push up inflation.”

Government was the only industry listed that saw a decrease in advertised salaries, dropping 1.5 per cent since October last year. Education and training (1.2), consulting and strategy (0.9), and advertising, arts and media (0.3), saw the smallest percentage increases of the industries listed.

SEEK says advertised salaries are up an average of 4 per cent from October 2021. SEEK attributes this rise due to the country being in lockdown late last year, affecting wages. SEEK says that advertised salaries have been growing around 0.4 per cent each month as of late.

Mr Cowgill said: “Advertised salary growth is treading water, growing by around 0.4 per month for the past several months. But this lift in annual growth is more about what was happening in 2021 than what’s happening in 2022.”

State-by-state insights show that each area of the country is experiencing growth at different paces. Tasmania, for example, saw the biggest growth in the past year, climbing 6.2 per cent. While ACT was the lowest, increasing by just 1.3 per cent since October 2021. NSW and SA saw growth of 3.5 per cent and Victoria 3.6 per cent.