Wage Price Index rose 3.2% in Q2

The ABS has released wage growth statistics for the June quarter of 2026.

In the 12 months to the 2026 June quarter, wages increased by 3.2 per cent.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), this is the fifth consecutive year-on-year increase of 0.8 per cent, following the March YOY wage increase of 3.3 per cent and 2025 December quarter increase of 3.4 per cent.

Head of prices statistics for the ABS, Rachael McCririck, said: “Annual wage growth of 3.2 per cent is slightly down from 3.4 per cent at the same time last year.”

“Although we’re currently below the late 2023 peak of 4.3 per cent, annual wage growth remains above the 2.2 per cent that we were seeing in the December quarter 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

During the June 2026 quarter, private sector wages rose 0.7 per cent during the quarter and 3.1 per cent during the past year, while public sector wages rose 0.9 per cent over the quarter and 3.4 per cent in the year to June 2026.

“Rises paid to state government public service jobs were the main driver of public sector growth, supported by scheduled rises paid under the existing APS-wide enterprise agreement for Commonwealth employees,” McCririck said.

Public administration and safety and healthcare and social assistance were the biggest contributors to the quarter’s wage growth, with the information media and telecommunications recording the highest quarterly rise of 1.2 per cent in original terms.

Further, South Australia recorded the highest quarterly and annual wage growth of 1.1 per cent and 3.6 per cent, respectively, while NSW saw the lowest quarterly rise of 0.4 per cent and the Northern Territory recorded the lowest annual rise of 2.8 per cent.

Finally, the ABS noted that jobs with less than 4 per cent a wage chance over the past year rose to 79 per cent compared to 75 per cent in the 2025 June quarter, the largest share recorded since June 2022.

McCririck said: “The decline in the share of jobs with larger wage rises has contributed to slower wage growth overall.”

Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make HR Leader a preferred news source on Google.