Real Wage Growth — methodology

What this metric measures

Nominal wage growth (Wage Price Index) minus the inflation rate (CPI). Shows whether wages are keeping up with prices — the single number that tells people if they're going forwards or backwards financially.

Why it matters: Positive real wage growth means workers' purchasing power is increasing. Negative means pay rises are being eaten by inflation, leaving people worse off in real terms.

Source & provenance

Publisher

ABS

Update frequency

quarterly

Licence

CC BY 4.0

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How the score is computed

The score is a 0–100 normalisation of the latest observation, compared to a baseline window. The traffic-light rating (RAG) reflects both the absolute level and the recent trend.

Direction

Higher is better

Trend window

60 months

Baseline

Last 10 years

{
  "red_max_pct_of_baseline": 95,
  "amber_min_pct_of_baseline": 95,
  "green_min_pct_of_baseline": 102
}