Income and cost of living

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	Nov 2015
Gone up more	13%		20%	8%	11%	13%	10%	16%		13%	15%	14%
Fallen behind	51%		45%	53%	67%	54%	57%	43%		48%	50%	54%
Stayed even	29%		31%	30%	16%	26%	25%	36%		31%	27%	26%
Don’t know	7%		5%	9%	5%	7%	8%	5%		8%	7%	5%

51% believe that, in the last two years, their income has fallen behind the cost of living. 29% think it has stayed even with the cost of living and 13% think it has gone up more.

67% of those earning under $600 pw and 57% of those earning $1,000-1,600 pw think their income has fallen behind while 52% of those earning over $1,600 pw think it has stayed the same or gone up.

These results suggest a slight improvement in household financial status since this question was asked in November.