Where does Josh Daicos' salary sit against the national line?
If you search for "josh daicos salary", you won't find a precise figure in the official earnings surveys published by the ABS, Fair Work, or the ATO. That's because AFL player salaries are set through a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the league and the players' union, not through an individual award or a public register. The on-site tool on this site compares any salary against the national full-time adult ordinary-time average from the ABS Average Weekly Earnings survey (May 2026). Without a confirmed number for Josh Daicos, we can still use his situation to explore how state and award arrangements can push a person's pay off the national line.
The national benchmarks
The ABS Average Weekly Earnings survey for May 2026 gives a national full-time adult ordinary-time average of $2,083.70 per week. Multiplied by 52, that's about $108,352 a year. This is the line that the Place a salary on the line tool uses. For context:
- The full-time median (from ABS Employee Earnings and Hours, August 2025) is about $90,532 a year.
- The all-employees median (including part-time workers) is about $74,100 a year.
- The national minimum wage from 1 July 2026, set by Fair Work, is $26.44 an hour, or $1,004.90 a week on a 38-hour week (about $52,255 a year).
Men's full-time ordinary-time average is about $113,412 a year; women's is about $100,594. These figures show that even the average full-time worker earns well above the minimum, and AFL players would be far above that average.
How state moves the figure
Josh Daicos plays for the Collingwood Football Club, based in Victoria. The state full-time averages from the ABS show that Victoria's average weekly ordinary-time earnings for full-time adults is $2,041.10, or about $106,137 a year. That's slightly below the national average of $108,352. But state averages hide a lot of variation. For example, the Australian Capital Territory has the highest state average at $2,290.20 per week ($119,090 a year), while Tasmania has the lowest at $1,846.30 ($96,008). If you live in a state with a higher average, your salary is more likely to be above the national line, but that doesn't mean every job in that state pays more. The States and territories page breaks down these differences.
For an AFL player, the state of the club matters only indirectly. The CBA sets minimum salaries and a total player payments pool, but individual contracts are negotiated with clubs. Victoria has multiple AFL clubs, so the labour market for players is competitive, which can push salaries up. But the key driver is the award-like structure of the CBA.
How award or collective agreement moves the figure
The ABS Employee Earnings and Hours survey (May 2025) breaks down earnings by method of setting pay. For all employees, the average weekly total cash earnings for those on a collective agreement is $1,746.10, compared to $922.20 for award-only workers and $1,876.50 for individual arrangements. AFL players are covered by a collective agreement (the CBA), so their earnings are typically much higher than the average for collective agreement workers because the AFL industry is high-value.
Fair Work's role in setting minimum wages and award rates doesn't directly cover professional sport, but the principle is the same: when pay is set by a collective agreement rather than an individual contract or an award, it can move the figure significantly. The national minimum wage from 1 July 2026 is $26.44 per hour, but AFL players earn many times that. The How the figures are set page explains how different pay-setting methods affect the averages.
Why we can't give a precise figure
The ABS Average Weekly Earnings survey is designed to measure the level of earnings across the whole economy, not individual high-profile salaries. The ATO publishes tax statistics by occupation, but those are aggregated and lagged by a year or two. Fair Work's awards cover industries like retail, hospitality, and manufacturing, not professional sport. So for a specific person like Josh Daicos, the only reliable source would be a club announcement or a media report, which this site does not use. The on-site tool accepts a yearly salary you enter yourself; it doesn't look up individual salaries.
What we can infer
Even without a number, we can say that Josh Daicos' salary is almost certainly above the national full-time average of $108,352. AFL players' minimum salary under the current CBA is understood to be around $100,000–$120,000 for a first-year player, and established players earn much more. The average AFL player salary is often reported in the media as being over $400,000, but that's not from an official government source. If you enter a hypothetical salary into the Place a salary on the line tool, you'll see how it compares to the national line, the median, and the minimum wage.
Conclusion
Josh Daicos' salary is a good example of how state and award (or collective agreement) can move a person's pay off the national line. Victoria's average is close to the national average, but the AFL's collective bargaining agreement pushes player salaries far above both. The national full-time average is a useful benchmark, but it's just one point of comparison. For a full picture, you need to consider industry, occupation, and pay-setting method. The Guides section has more on how to interpret these figures.