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Income and cost of living

30 Jan 2018

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 Aug 2017
Gone up more 14% 20% 13% 10% 13% 11% 17% 20%   13% 15% 14% 13% 15%
Fallen behind 51% 46% 50% 64% 58% 59% 44% 41%   48% 50% 54% 51% 53%
Stayed even 28% 30% 29% 22% 23% 25% 34% 34% 31% 27% 26% 29% 25%
Don’t know 7% 4% 8% 4% 6% 5% 5% 5% 8% 7% 5% 7% 6%

 

51% (down 2% since August) believe that, in the last two years, their income has fallen behind the cost of living. 28% (up 3%) think it has stayed even with the cost of living and 14% (down 1%) think it has gone up more.

 

64% of those earning under $600 pw and 58% of those earning $600-1,000 pw think their income has fallen behind while 54% of those earning over $2,000 pw think it has stayed the same or gone up.

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