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Income and cost of living

31 Mar 2015

Q. In the last two years, do you think your and your household’s income has gone up more than the cost of living, fallen behind or stayed even with the cost of living?

  Total   Work full time Work part time Income less than $600 pw Income $600-$1,000pw Income $1,000-$1,600 pw Income $1,600+ pw   Oct 2014
Gone up more 15% 18% 17% 12% 13% 18% 19% 13%
Fallen behind 50% 48% 51% 62% 53% 46% 46% 48%
Stayed even 27% 28% 25% 21% 30% 29% 30% 31%
Don’t know 7% 6% 7% 6% 4% 7% 5% 8%

50% believe that, in the last two years, their income has fallen behind the cost of living. 27% think it has stayed even with the cost of living and 15% think it has gone up more.

62% of those earning under $600 pw and 53% of those earning $600-$1,000 pw think their income has fallen behind while 49% of those earning over $1,600 pw think it has stayed the same or gone up.

These results are much the same as when this question was asked in October.

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