Where the national line sits
On this site, the line is drawn at the national full-time adult ordinary-time average: $2,083.70 a week, or about $108,352 a year (ABS Average Weekly Earnings, May 2026, multiplied by 52). That figure comes from the ABS’s twice-yearly survey of employer payrolls and reflects the average earnings of all full-time adults before tax. It is a useful benchmark, but it hides a lot of variation – by state, by industry, by occupation, and by the type of agreement that sets your pay.
For comparison, the full-time median is about $90,532 a year, and the all-employees median (including part-time and casual workers) is about $74,100 (ABS Employee earnings, August 2025). The national minimum wage from 1 July 2026 is $26.44 an hour, or about $52,255 a year on a 38-hour week. Award minimums rose by 4.75% from that date.
Why a state or an award can move the figure off the national line
Your actual pay can sit well above or below the national line for several reasons. The most obvious is where you live. State full-time averages range from Tasmania’s $96,008 to the ACT’s $119,090. Western Australia ($115,825) and New South Wales ($109,658) also sit above the national line, while Victoria ($106,137) and Queensland ($106,064) are slightly below. These differences reflect the mix of industries, occupations, and the strength of local labour markets.
Another big factor is the award or enterprise agreement that covers you. Fair Work publishes pay guides for each award, which set minimum rates for classifications within an industry. For example, the Health Services Award changed from 1 October 2026, and the Supported Employment Services Award includes changes from 30 June 2026 and 1 July 2026. If you are covered by an enterprise agreement, your pay may be higher than the award minimum – but it is still negotiated within a framework that the Fair Work Commission oversees.
Patrick Dangerfield’s salary: a case study in pay above the line
Patrick Dangerfield is a professional AFL player for the Geelong Football Club. His salary is not a figure you will find in the ABS’s Average Weekly Earnings release or on a Fair Work pay guide. The ABS reports averages by industry and occupation, not by individual name. The industry that covers professional sport is “Arts and Recreation Services”, but the ABS does not break out individual clubs or players. Fair Work’s pay guides cover awards such as the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award – not the AFL.
AFL player salaries are set under the AFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which is an enterprise agreement between the AFL and the AFL Players’ Association. That agreement is not published on Fair Work’s website, and the exact figures for individual players are usually reported by media based on club disclosures or player manager comments. Patrick Dangerfield’s salary is widely reported in the sports press to be in the range of $800,000 to $1 million per year, but no official government source confirms that number.
What we can say with certainty is that any AFL player’s pay sits far above the national line. Even the minimum AFL wage under the CBA is well over $100,000, which is already above the national full-time average. Patrick Dangerfield, as a marquee player, would earn several times that. This illustrates how enterprise agreements in high-revenue industries can push pay far beyond what the average worker receives.
How the site handles unconfirmed figures
Because this site relies on official sources – the ABS, Fair Work, and the ATO – we do not publish an exact salary for Patrick Dangerfield. The on-site tool accepts a yearly salary before tax and shows where it sits relative to the national line, the median, and the minimum wage. If you enter a figure that is not from an official source, the tool will still calculate the distance from the line, but we note that the figure is not verified by the ABS or Fair Work.
For a player like Dangerfield, the distance from the national line would be enormous. On a 38-hour week, the national average works out to about $54.83 an hour. A player earning $900,000 a year would be on about $455 an hour – more than eight times the average. But that comparison is misleading because professional athletes do not work a standard 38-hour week; their hours include training, travel, and game time, and their careers are short.
Other ways pay can move off the line
- Occupation: Managers and professionals have the highest hourly earnings, at $69.20 and $64.50 respectively (ABS Employee earnings, August 2025). Sales assistants and hospitality workers earn much less.
- Industry: Health Care and Social Assistance is the largest employer, but its average is below the national line. Mining and finance are above.
- Gender: Men’s full-time ordinary-time average is about $113,412; women’s is about $100,594. The gap persists even within the same occupation.
- Casual and part-time work: 19% of employees are casual, and their median earnings are lower than full-time workers.
How the figures are set
The national line comes from the ABS’s Average Weekly Earnings survey, which is released twice a year (May and November). The May 2026 release showed a 3.7% annual increase in full-time adult ordinary-time earnings. The site updates when that data is published. Medians come from the ABS’s Employee Earnings and Hours survey, last released in August 2025. The minimum wage is set by the Fair Work Commission each year, effective 1 July.
If you want to see where your own salary sits, you can Place a salary on the line. You can also explore States and territories to see how your local average compares, or check Job medians for your occupation. For more on how the site works, see About this site.
Summary
Patrick Dangerfield’s salary is not an official statistic, but it is a clear example of how enterprise agreements in professional sport can produce earnings far above the national full-time average. The national line of $108,352 is a useful benchmark, but your actual pay depends on your state, your industry, your award or agreement, and your occupation. The ABS and Fair Work provide the data that sets that line – and that data shows that most Australians earn less than the average, because the average is pulled up by high earners like AFL players.