Income and cost of living

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-$1,500 pw	Income $1,500 – $2,000 pw	Income $2,000+ pw		Oct 2014	Mar 2015	Nov 2015	Feb 2016
Gone up more	15%		22%	15%	11%	11%	13%	21%	21%		13%	15%	14%	13%
Fallen behind	53%		47%	54%	69%	58%	54%	50%	42%		48%	50%	54%	51%
Stayed even	25%		24%	27%	14%	25%	25%	26%	34%		31%	27%	26%	29%
Don’t know	6%		7%	5%	6%	6%	8%	3%	3%		8%	7%	5%	7%

 

53% (up 2% since February 2016) believe that, in the last two years, their income has fallen behind the cost of living. 25% (down 4%) think it has stayed even with the cost of living and 15% (up 2%) think it has gone up more.

 

69% of those earning under $600 pw and 58% of those earning $600-1,000 pw think their income has fallen behind while 55% of those earning over $2,000 pw think it has stayed the same or gone up.