Evidence
Private Wages Trail Inflation as RBA Hits 16-Year High
Everything this story rests on. If a figure is not here, we did not publish it.
The one number
3.1%
Private sector annual wage growth, June quarter 2026, percent.
The data
| Metric | Value | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private sector WPI, annual | 3.1% | June quarter 2026 | ABS cat. 6345.0 |
| Public sector WPI, annual | 3.4% | June quarter 2026 | ABS cat. 6345.0 |
| Headline WPI, annual | 3.2% | June quarter 2026 | ABS cat. 6345.0 |
| Trimmed mean CPI, annual | 3.6% | June quarter 2026 | ABS |
| RBA cash rate target | 4.60% | 29 September 2026 | RBA |
| GDP per hour worked, annual change | -0.2% | June quarter 2026 | ABS national accounts |
| Household savings rate | 6.1% | 2024 | OECD |
Sources
| Series | Publisher | Tier | Period | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| wpi_private_annual_au ↗ | Australian Bureau of Statistics | Tier 1 | June quarter 2026 | Wage Price Index, private sector, annual percentage change, excluding bonuses |
| wpi_public_annual_au ↗ | Australian Bureau of Statistics | Tier 1 | June quarter 2026 | Wage Price Index, public sector, annual percentage change |
| wpi_annual_au ↗ | Australian Bureau of Statistics | Tier 1 | June quarter 2026 | Wage Price Index, total, annual percentage change |
| trimmed_mean_cpi_au ↗ | Australian Bureau of Statistics | Tier 1 | June quarter 2026 | Trimmed mean CPI, annual percentage change |
| cash_rate_au ↗ | Reserve Bank of Australia | Tier 1 | 30 September 2026 | RBA cash rate target, percent per annum |
| gdp_per_hour_worked_annual_au ↗ | Australian Bureau of Statistics | Tier 1 | June quarter 2026 | GDP per hour worked, annual percentage change, derived from national accounts |
| household_savings_rate ↗ | OECD | Tier 1 | 2024 | Household net savings rate, percent of household net disposable income |
Caveat
The 50-basis-point real-wage gap is directional arithmetic, not a certified statistic, because the Wage Price Index and CPI cover different populations and use different compilation methods.
How to check this yourself
Follow the source links above. Each goes to the published series, not to our copy of it. Where we computed a figure rather than quoting one, the calculation is stated in the basis column. If you find an error, it gets a correction on the story.