Country guide · Australia
Moving to Australia: cost of living, salaries, taxes, visas
Points-based skilled migration; broad working-holiday agreements; high overall tax, mild winters, and a heavy-housing-cost market in Sydney and Melbourne.
Australia runs one of the most developed points-based skilled migration programs globally. The General Skilled Migration pool lets candidates apply without an employer; employer-sponsored 482/186 visas are the alternative for named hires.
Income tax is progressive and combined with the 2% Medicare levy lands in the high 20s effective rate for mid-career professionals. Sydney and Melbourne dominate the relocator inflow; housing is the dominant cost factor in both, with rentals well above the country's smaller-city averages.
Data signals
What the numbers say about Australia
The take-home math
Take-home pay in Australia is shaped by a roughly 25% effective payroll deduction (income tax + social security), with VAT at 10%.
The main hub
Its primary hub, Sydney, carries a cost index of 57 (New York = 100).
Cost spread within the country
Across the 3 Australia cities we track, the cost index spans 45 (Melbourne) to 57 (Sydney).
Economy
Inflation and jobs in Australia
Consumer prices rose 2.9% in 2025, averaging 3.7% a year across 2020–2025 — a mean pulled up by the 6.6% of 2022, so the 2025 rate is the better guide to today.
A missing year in a series means the source reported no observation, not zero. From the World Bank (World Development Indicators, updated 2026-07-13).
Average wage
Average salary in Australia
The average annual wage in Australia is about $70,736 (PPP-adjusted US$), per the OECD (2024). PPP-adjusted means it's comparable across countries on what the money actually buys — the OECD-wide average is ~$61,000. Source: OECD.
This is a country-wide figure. For what you actually need to earn in a specific city, see the salary-by-lifestyle breakdown on each city's cost-of-living page.
See take-home pay in Australia after tax → or compare with another country.
At a glance
Australia relocation profile
Vs the catalog average
Is Sydney cheap or expensive, relatively?
Sydney's cost and rent index against the mean across every city Mundevo covers.
Index base: New York = 100. Catalog average is the unweighted mean across all cities Mundevo tracks, recomputed on every build.
Tax and visa landscape
Headline tax model + entry-point visa overview for relocators.
- Effective income tax: 24.9%
- Social security (employee): 0.0%
- Total payroll deduction: 24.9%
- VAT: 10.0%
- Currency: AUD
Effective rates assume a single salaried filer at country median wage. Special regimes (e.g. expat-favoring schemes) are not applied here — see the visa guide for those.
Visa categories, residency routes, and tax-regime context for relocators are detailed in the dedicated visa guide.
Australia visa guide →Salary bands at Sydney — by role
Illustrative gross-salary bands for 6 senior IC roles in Sydney. Derived from NYC anchor × Australia pay-tier multiplier. Cross-check Levels.fyi, Glassdoor before negotiating.
| Role | P25 | P50 | P75 | NYC anchor (P50) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software engineer | A$135,821 | A$168,605 | A$215,440 | $180,000 |
| Product manager | A$140,504 | A$182,656 | A$243,541 | $195,000 |
| UX / product designer | A$103,036 | A$135,821 | A$182,656 | $145,000 |
| Marketing manager | A$88,986 | A$121,770 | A$163,922 | $130,000 |
| Data scientist | A$126,454 | A$163,922 | A$215,440 | $175,000 |
| Finance analyst | A$110,962 | A$156,356 | A$221,925 | $155,000 |
Top relocation corridors
Closest peers by cost-of-living index — the moves most commonly considered alongside Australia.