Aussie real wages plunge lower

Recall the recent boast of Australia’s Treasurer of propaganda, “Spin” Jim Chalmers, claiming that Labor had delivered the “longest period of consecutive real wage growth in almost a decade” following eight consecutive quarters of annual real wage growth:

Chalmers’ misleading comment came after the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released Q3 2025 wage data showing that real wages declined by 0.5% over the quarter.

As a result, real wages were tracking at mid-2011 levels in Q3 2025 and have only improved by 1.1% from their low in the March quarter of 2023:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.