Fair Work Commission

Wage expenses analysis

The following interactive chart allows users to filter the average income to wage expenses ratio by industry and main method of setting pay, including:

• award-based
• enterprise agreement, and
• individual arrangement.

An example of how to interpret this analysis is that, on average, total income reported by enterprises in the Accommodation and food services industry is almost 5 times more than the reported cost of wages and salaries. However for enterprises in the same industry using individual arrangements as the main method of setting pay, total income reported is 3.8 times more than reported cost of wages and salaries.

Alternative analysis of labour costs is also available in Section 4.5, of the publication Award reliance and business size: a data profile using the Australian Workplace Relations Study and the Labour costs section of the AWRS First Findings Report.

Average income to wage expenses ratio by industry division & main method of setting pay