Essential Report
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.

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