WAGES AND SALARIES IN YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA


The latest data on Wages and salaries earned by residents in your Local Government Area (LGA) was released in Wage and Salary Earner Statistics for Small Areas, Time Series, 2003-04 to 2007-08 (cat. no. 5673.0.55.00) in October 2010. Data in this release will help you answer questions about your Local Government Area such as:

• How many Wage and salary earners are in my area?
• What is the Average wage and salary income in my area?
• How many people earn relatively high incomes?
• What are the ages of Wage and salary earners in my area?

This release contains a main features article which illustrates how the data can be used to explore the characteristics of regions. However, we will now use the Local Government Area of Broken Hill to illustrate how this data can answer the above questions, plus many more you may have about Wage and salary earners in your region.


BROKEN HILL LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

Broken Hill is a regional town in Western New South Wales near the South Australian border. It is surrounded by semi-desert and is 500km from Adelaide and over 1,100km from Sydney. From 2003-04 to 2007-08 the LGA of Broken Hill had one of the largest average annual growth rates in Wage and salary income in a non-metropolitan area (5.2%). In comparison the Wage and salary income in New South Wales grew by an average of 4.1% each year. During that period the average Wage and salary income for Broken Hill, increased from $33,070 in 2003-04 to $40,429 in 2007-08.

How many Wage and salary earners are in Broken Hill?

The number of people earning income from a Wage and salary in Broken Hill increased from 6,870 persons in 2003-04 to 7,780 persons in 2007-08, an increase of 13.2%. During that time, the estimated resident population decreased by 1.2%, from 20,332 to 20,089 (Regional Population Growth, Australia, cat. no. 3218.0).How many people receive high Wage and salary income in Broken Hill?

During the same period Broken Hill had large increases in people earning relatively high incomes from Wages and salaries. From 2003-04 to 2007-08 the number of Wage and salary earners earning $67,600 to $83,000 increased by 103.8%, while those in the higher income brackets of $83,200 to $104,000 and over $104,000 rose by 238% and 156% respectively. While there were increases in people earning high Wages and salaries, there were decreases in Wage and salaries earners in the lowest income brackets, with those people earning $0 to $13,000 falling by 7.8%, and Wage and salary earners in the $20,800 to $31,200 bracket down by 11.9%. This shows that more people in Broken Hill were earning relatively high incomes.

The Wage and salary data also shows that over time there has been a shift in occupations of Wage and salary earners in the region. Between 2003-04 and 2007-08 the number of Wage and salary earners employed as Intermediate Transport and Production Workers showed the largest increase, by growing 42.8%.There were also large increases in the number of Wage and salary earners working as Tradespersons and Related Workers (up by 28.0%). However, Professionals still remain the most common occupation in the area.What are the ages of Wage and salary earners in Broken Hill?

From 2003-04 to 2007-08 there was a large increase in two particular age groups of Wage and salary earners. There was a 31.4% increase in people aged 15 to 24 years earning a Wage and salary income and a 33.8% increase in the 55 to 64 year age group. The number of Wage and salary earners in the 35 to 44 year age group declined by 3.8%. These figures show that Broken Hill's growth in Wage and salary earners was mostly in the young and older age groups. However, even with the increases in these age groups, the middle age range still remains the largest group of Wage and salary earners in Broken Hill as shown in Graph 2.



FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more Wage and salary information on the Broken Hill LGA and all other regions, see Wage and Salary Earner Statistics for Small Areas, Time Series, 2003-04 to 2007-08 (cat. no.5673.0.55.003). This publication contains detailed data released by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) relating to Wage and salary earners on a range of geographic levels for the years 2003-04 to 2007-08. This includes Wage and salary data by age, sex, occupation and income for Statistical Divisions, Statistical Subdivisions, Statistical Local Areas and Local Government Areas.