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Income and cost of living

3 Nov 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- $1,000 pw

Income $1,000- $1,600 pw

Income $1,600+ pw

Oct 2014

Mar 2015

Gone up more

14%

20%

12%

10%

10%

16%

17%

13%

15%

Fallen behind

54%

50%

58%

76%

57%

50%

48%

48%

50%

Stayed even

26%

25%

27%

10%

30%

31%

29%

31%

27%

Don’t know

5%

5%

3%

4%

3%

3%

5%

8%

7%

54% believe that, in the last two years, their income has fallen behind the cost of living. 26% think it has stayed even with the cost of living and 14% think it has gone up more.

76% of those earning under $600 pw and 57% of those earning $600-$1,000 pw think their income has fallen behind while 46% of those earning over $1,600 pw think it has stayed the same or gone up.

These results reflect a slight worsening of household financial status since this question was asked in March.

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