Median Aussie casual worker earnings rise to $1250 a week

The median weekly earnings of half of all casual Aussie workers have risen to at least $1250 as the industry recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows in August 2022 the median weekly earnings of casual employees rose by $50 or 4.2 per cent compared to the year before.

The number of casual workers earning less than $1000 per week has fallen by 500,000 to four million over the past three years.

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Head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said weekly earnings have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic contributing to the rise in wages.

"For those earning less than $1000 per week in their main job, 8.9 per cent also had a second job, compared with 4.5 per cent of those earning $1000 or over,"

In an interesting twist despite the gender pay gap stagnating, women's casual work earnings increased by $62 or 4.5 per cent while men's increased by $60 or 3.9 per cent.

But this $2 median increase doesn't put a dent in the large disparity between men's and women's weekly earnings, as men earn around $1600 while women earn $1442.

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The casual work industry is also starting to recover after COVID-19 left many people without jobs in cost-cutting measures.

Before the pandemic, the number of casual workers was 2.6 million but during the pandemic, it dropped to 2.1 million workers.

Now, the number of casual workers has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

But Jarvis noted this rise in numbers is still much slower than other types of workers.

"In August 2022, the number of people working as casuals in their main job was around 1.5 per cent higher than February 2020," Jarvis said.

"By comparison, the number of employees with paid leave entitlements had risen by 4.9 per cent."

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Jarvis added pre-COVID-19 that 25 per cent of all employees were casual workers but in 2022 the industry has only recovered to 23.5 per cent.

"This continues to show the slower recovery in some of the hardest-hit workforces during the pandemic," he said.