CHANGES IN INCOME OVER TIME


Change in the distribution of income and wealth over time are a key area of interest for social and economic policy analysts and researchers. Distribution analysis can indicate whether the material living standards of the community are improving evenly across the population.

All income groups have experienced a real increase in their income since the mid-1990s. Some of the growth in middle and high income groups was due to a broadening of the Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) income measure from 2003–04, with further improvements in 2007–08. However, there were also real increases in average incomes during this period.

As shown in Graph 1, between 1994–95 and 2013–14, the median income of low income households increased by $153 per week to reach $427 per week in 2013–14. This is half as much as middle income households, which increased by $314 per week over the same time period to reach $844 per week in 2013-14, and almost a quarter of the amount of high income households, whcih increased by $669 per week to reach $1,688 per week.



As shown in Graph 2, in 2009–10 all income groups felt the impact of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), experiencing a drop in their rate of change in income from preceding years. Middle and high income households received lower average weekly income compared with 2007–08. Over the same period, the low income group had a very small increase in income compared to previous years.

In 2011–12, the low income group showed the most significant recovery from 2009–10, closely followed by middle income earners (5.1% and 4.3% increases respectively). The average for high income earners was similar to 2009–10.

By comparison, in 2013–14 the high income group experienced a 7.0% increase from 2011–12. Low income earners showed an increase of 3.0%, and middle income earners had a similar average to 2011–12.