How the national average sets the line
The Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes Average Weekly Earnings twice a year, for May and November. The May 2026 release put full-time adult ordinary time earnings at $2,083.70 a week. Multiply by 52 and you get about $108,352 a year before tax. That is the line this site uses as the national reference. Every salary you enter is compared to that figure.
It is important to remember that this is an average, not a median. Averages can be pulled up by very high earners. The ABS also publishes a median in its Employee Earnings and Hours survey (most recently August 2025). The full-time median was about $90,532 a year, and the all-employees median was about $74,100. The average sits well above both, which tells you that a typical full-time worker earns less than the average.
Where the medians and minimum wage sit
For context, the full-time median is about $1,741 a week, while the all-employees median is about $1,436 a week. The national minimum wage from 1 July 2026 is $26.44 an hour, or $1,004.90 a week on a 38-hour week. That works out to about $52,255 a year. Award minimums rose by 4.75% at the same time.
If you are comparing your own pay, it helps to know where you sit against these benchmarks. The line at $108,352 is the full-time average. If you earn less than that, you are below the average but may still be above the median or minimum wage. Place a salary on the line to see the distance.
A resident take-home sketch using the average
Let us take the national full-time average of $108,352 and run it through the 2026–27 resident tax rates. The tax-free threshold is $18,200. Then:
- 15% on the next $26,800 (up to $45,000)
- 30% on the next $90,000 (up to $135,000)
- 37% on the next $55,000 (up to $190,000)
- 45% above that
On $108,352, the tax works out to about $24,106, plus the Medicare levy of 2% ($2,167), for a total of about $26,273. That leaves a take-home of roughly $82,079 a year, or $1,578 a week. This is a rough sketch; it does not include the low-income tax offset or the Medicare levy reduction for low earners, but it gives a sense of what the average worker might keep.
State averages vary. The Australian Capital Territory has the highest full-time average at about $119,090, while Tasmania is the lowest at about $96,008. Western Australia is $115,825, New South Wales $109,658, Victoria $106,137, Queensland $106,064, South Australia $102,450, the Northern Territory $103,173. States and territories has the full breakdown.
What about Alex Johnston's salary?
Alex Johnston is a professional rugby league player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Player salaries in the NRL are often reported in the media, but no official figure for Johnston has been published by the ABS, Fair Work, or the ATO in the sources used for this site. Without a confirmed public figure, we cannot say where his pay sits against the national average.
If you have a reliable number from a named award, a club announcement, or a public disclosure, you can enter it into the tool to see the comparison. The site will show the weekly and hourly equivalents on a 38-hour week, plus the distance from the line.
How to use the line for your own pay
The tool on this site accepts a yearly salary before tax and shows you how it stacks up against the national full-time average. It also displays the weekly and hourly amounts based on a 38-hour week. You can compare your salary to the medians, the minimum wage, and the state averages. Job medians and Industry medians give more detail for specific roles and sectors.
For a deeper look at how the figures are set, see How the figures are set. And if you want to understand the difference between averages and medians, or how the minimum wage interacts with awards, the Guides section has plain-language explanations.
The national average is a useful reference, but it is only one point. Your own circumstances – industry, location, experience, and hours – matter more. Use the line as a starting point, not a finish line.