Where does a diesel mechanic, including field service, a fitter, an electrician, a driver, a yardie,

Don Sutherland 27/3/16

I decided to take a close look because early last week the Australian Tax Office (ATO) released to the general public the latest stats on the incomes and income tax paid of Australians. (Click here , and look for Tables 14 and 16)

For example, we learned just how little tax was being paid by some of Australia’s highest income earners.  For example, click here.

Remember, we are talking about “incomes”, not wealth. (We know that some people can report very low incomes but somehow or other be very wealthy.)

The incomes information is in a very big table that divides income levels into 100 “percentiles” – that is, the bottom 1% of income earners, then those between the 1-2%, all the way through, percent by percent, to those earning at the very top, between 99-100%.

And, the ATO tells us how many individuals, both men and women, there are for each percentile, and where particular occupations sit. From this it’s possible to work out reasonably well what the average income is and what the median – the middle point – is in the income league table.

I have been guided by the work of Greg Jericho, a journalist who writes for The Guardian (the Australian on line edition) and the ABC program, The Drum. If you are interested, click here to take a look at Greg’s latest work. Or, follow this link: http://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2016/mar/24/the-budget-is-coming-so-standby-for-talk-of-ordinary-australians-who-are-these-people

Jericho shows the increase in incomes across all 100 percentiles compared to the previous report.

Among other things, Jericho supports the idea that since the 2007 global economic crisis the rich are paying themselves (earning?) a lot more than they are paying those who they employ. For example, he says:

“But the average income of those in the 90th is 34.9% more than in the 80th; and the average income of the 100th percentile is a jaw dropping 481% larger at $698,574”

My go at Greg’s work starts here and then goes on to look at the typical engineering service / metal worker  occupations. It is interesting, also, to see how any individuals there are at each percentile, but that is not the purpose of this commentary.

So, what about the typical engineering services / metal worker?

Here in this graph is my go at a snapshot for some of the typical occupations in the industry.

Remember!  The numbers 30, 40, 50 etc are selected  percentiles only, and each is the average at that percentile for both men and women.

Also, these are the stats for 2013-14, at the beginning of the fall in incomes associated with the fall in mine site production. These numbers also reflect very long working hours for the blue collar jobs. The current numbers (ie early 2016) would tend to be somewhat less, especially for fitters and diesel mechanics.

Anyone can compare their own actual annual income with the graph. I suspect some would be higher than the number for their occupation, and some probably less.

It is worth reflecting on the gender pay gap that prevails in the industry.

Just in case you are interested, you can also see the average taxable income of the senior executives of the type that “manage” engineering service work from their corporate boxes.

We do not know at this time what this means for the members of company Boards and owners. Secret squirrels’ business?