2022 Australia Salary Guide

A salary sacrifice (or sometimes referred to as 'salary packaging' or 'total remuneration packaging') is when you and your employer agree to 'package' your salary into income and benefits. For example, instead of receiving a salary of $100,000 you can choose to receive $90,000 as income and the remaining $10,000 could be used for a car for example. This means your overall take-home salary is less which in turn means you will be taxed less. For more information we recommend you speak to your tax agent as they are best equipped to provide guidance.

Before you start negotiating your salary, find out what the average salary is for your role and the industry you are working in. You can find market salary rates in salary guides that are annually published by recruitment agencies.

Learn more about how to prepare for a salary negotiation before, during and after the conversation in our article: 11 Tips on how to negotiate your salary.

Salary packaging is also known as salary sacrifice. Salary packaging is when you and your employer agree to 'package' your salary into income and benefits. For example, instead of receiving a salary of $100,000 you can choose to receive $90,000 as income and the remaining $10,000 could be used for a car for example. This means your overall take-home salary is less which in turn means you will be taxed less. For more information we recommend you speak to your tax agent as they are best equipped to provide guidance.

The average salary in Australia in 2021 is above $90,000. Australian professionals working 38 hours a week are now earning $1737.10 per week on average.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the gender pay gap based on weekly ordinary earnings:

• Men: $1,996.60 (public), and $1,807.40 (private).
• Women: $1,781.60 (public), and $1,490.70 (private).

Step 1

Add together your permanent annual salary (for example $100,000) with the monetary equivalent of the benefits you receive each year (for example $3,000).

$100,000 + $3,000

Step 2

Divide that annual worth by how many days you work in a year. On average, contractors will work 230 days in a year. So you divide the total of your permanent salary + monetary equivalent of benefits by those 230 days.

($100,000 + $3,000) ÷ 230 = $447.83 per day

Step 3

Contractors can typically demand a higher salary - the figure is roughly reported as being 15% more in comparison to a permanent employee.

$447.83 x 115% = $515 (daily contractor rate)

Step 4

Multiply your daily rate by the number of days worked in a year.

The final step in the calculation is to simply multiply that figure ($515) by the number of days worked in an average year (230).

$515 x 230 = $118,450

In this example, $515 per day equates to on an annual basis of $118,450 - significantly more than your permanent position of $100,000 base salary

You can ask 'What would the company typically pay for this role?" as sometimes, if you lay all your cards on the table and outline your salary expectations, you risk being screened out of the process. This can happen if in the job description the compensation is highlighted as ‘competitive’.

They will then either give a range or provide more details about the position and then ask the question again, at which point you can make a more informed call.

Our article on 'How to answer salary expectation questions' provides more tips on how to answer the 'expected salary' question.

'Competitive salary' means that the business is offering a salary that can compete with what the market salary rate is for the advertised role and/ or offer a higher salary.