In Australia, a $100,000 salary is no longer considered high, especially during a cost-of-living crisis.
For the first time in history, the average full-time salary has entered six-figure territory.
The average full-time salary excluding bonuses and overtime stood at $100,017 in May, with four in 10 industries now having pay levels that are typically in the six-figure range, new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed.
Mining was the highest-paying industry, with an average salary of $156,796.
The others were IT, media and telecommunications ($126,734), finance and insurance ($118,726), professional, scientific and technical services ($116,761), electricity, waste, water and gas ($116,678), public administration security such as police officers ($105,877), and education which generally includes teachers ($105,373).
The health care and social assistance category was not far behind, with an average equivalent salary of $98,925, making them even better paid than construction workers and laborers, who earn $94,734.
But Alysia Sheppard, a 44-year-old single mother of two teenage sons, is still struggling with the cost of living crisis despite earning six figures.
She receives a salary of $105,000 as a sales representative for a commercial office company that provides furniture to TAFEs, universities and schools, but still has just $5 left before payday.
Alysia Sheppard, a 44-year-old single mother of two teenage children, is struggling with the cost of living crisis despite earning slightly more than the average wage.
“I know people will think, ‘Well, she has good money,’ but it’s really difficult.” he told the Daily Mail Australia.
‘At the moment, I’m living day to day. I’ve been a single mother for 15 years and I have two teenage children.
‘I don’t have the Bank of Mom and Dad, I can’t go back to live with my parents to make it work.
“I feel a bit stuck where I am now, just trying to get ahead is really hard.”
While she can work from home, her job requires her to be in Sydney to meet with wholesale clients in the education sector, meaning there is little prospect of moving to a more affordable city.
“I used to spend $150 a week on food and now that’s up to almost $275 a week to feed the three of us,” she said.
‘I’ve stopped going out to restaurants, going to cafes, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t go on vacation.’
In addition to his main job, he takes on several side jobs to help cover the bills and pay his Catholic school fees.
“Cleaning was something that could fit into the school schedule when the kids were young,” she said.
‘I’ve also done some odd jobs, like removing wallpaper from a bedroom, being a waitress at a house party and delivering chocolates and things like that.
Alysia Sheppard earns a salary of $105,000 as a sales representative for a commercial office company that provides furniture to colleges, universities and schools, but she still has just $5 left before payday. Alysia Sheppard is pictured with Oliver, 18, and Harrison, 16.
‘For the last 12 months alone I’ve had to rely on that to supplement my income.
‘Last year I worked four jobs to try to survive.’
Despite earning a six-figure salary, Ms Sheppard is struggling to pay rent on a two-bedroom apartment in Dee Why on Sydney’s northern beaches.
The weekly rent of $590 is expensive, but a bargain in its suburb, where $701 is now the median, according to data from SQM Research.
The dining room has also been converted into a “temporary” third bedroom.
“My rent is about 45 percent of my income; anything over 30 percent, they say, constitutes rental stress,” she said.
Someone earning $100,000 can only buy a $650,100 house with a 20 per cent mortgage deposit.
But that’s well below the median price of an apartment in Sydney of $852,766, meaning any apartment in the north of the city within its price range would only have one bedroom.
The Central Coast is also expensive, with affordable suburbs near Tuggerah Lake, such as Gorokan, more than 100km north of Sydney, which has a median house price of $694,621, according to CoreLogic data.
For Ms Sheppard, the only alternative is to continue renting but buy an investment property in a smaller regional area such as Rockhampton in central Queensland.
But her debt to the Higher Education Contribution Scheme for three degrees in teaching, interior design and marketing could make it difficult for her to get a loan, despite her six-figure salary.
“I won’t qualify for anything within the Sydney region, so I’m looking for a rental option with ownership,” he said.
“I’m pretty much ruled out until I can pay off my HECS debt.”
Bridget Carkeet also earns a low six-figure salary as a clinical exercise physiologist in Ipswich, southwest of Brisbane (pictured with boyfriend Aidan Lunney).
Bridget Carkeet also earns a low six-figure salary as a clinical exercise physiologist in Ipswich, southwest of Brisbane.
The 20-something can afford a four-bedroom home she bought for $500,000 in 2021, but has had to cut back on her lunch expenses, leaving her and boyfriend Aidan Lunney to rely on leftovers.
“We prepare meals and we definitely bring lunches,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We’ll actually be using leftovers from last night’s dinner, whatever that is.
“We go out to eat maybe once a week, but we don’t use Uber Eats or anything like that.”
It had also prepared for interest rate hikes in 2021, when they were still at a record low of 0.1 percent.
Borrowers have had to face 13 times the interest rate, squeezing even those with six-figure salaries.
“I knew interest rates would go up, so I figured out what I could afford on my current salary,” Carkeet said.