Top 10 highest paid jobs in Australia, revealed

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) recently revealed the top 10 highest paying jobs in the country.

The ATO recently released its Taxation Statistics for 2019-20 with, unsurprisingly given the global pandemic, workers in the medical field taking out the top three spots.

Other high-paying industries include financial services, law, and engineering.

And all of the top 10 jobs earn an average income of over $155,000 a year, before tax or the Medicare levy are factored in.

Surgeons take the top spot as the highest earning profession, making an average of $406,068 a year, or about $4,703 a week after tax, according to the latest ATO data.

Anaesthetists come in second place, earning an average of $388,814 a year, or around $4,527 a week after tax.

According to the ATO, there were only 3,509 individuals in the job during the reporting period, making it a relatively small profession.

Internal medicine specialists - which includes cardiologists, neurologists, and paediatricians -  are the third highest paid occupation group, earning $310,848 per year on average, or about $3,732 per week after tax.

The top non-medical profession to make the list is financial dealers - which includes stockbrokers and people who buy and sell securities on behalf of clients.

Financial dealers earn $279,790 on average or about $3,416 per week after tax.

By comparison, the average Aussie earns around $69,400 a year in taxable income.

Top 10 occupations by income

Meanwhile, hospitality workers, who are often younger and work in part-time or casual jobs, represented occupations with the lowest average taxable incomes.

The lowest paid were apprentice hospitality workers ($19,877), fast food cooks ($20,447), apprentice trainees in sport and recreation ($20,447), and apprentices in cleaning services ($24,330).

What does the average Australian earn?

The average taxable income for Australians was $63,882 in 2019-20, up just 2.1% from the previous tax year.

The median, or middle, earning Australian made $48,381, with men ($56,746) still earning considerably more than women ($41,724) on this measure, which effectively removes the effect of extremely high and low incomes.

The median and average key items, by sex, 2018–19 and 2019–20 income years

About Brett Warren Brett Warren is National Director of Metropole Properties and uses his two decades of property investment experience to advise clients how to grow, protect and pass on their wealth through strategic property advice.