This report examines the latest available data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (for 2019-20, adjusting forward to 2022-23 for wealth) to identify who stands where on the income and wealth ladders and the main causes of income and wealth inequality.

This report has a special focus on individual earnings inequality and on inequalities of wealth by age.

Key findings:

• In 2019-20, the highest 10% of households ranked by income had an average $5,248 per week after tax, over two and a half times that of the middle 20% ($1,989) and six times that of the lowest 20% ($794).
• Wealth is divided much more unequally than income. In 2022-23 the highest 10% of households ranked by wealth (those with over $2.5 million) held 44% of all wealth, an average of $5.2 million each.
• In 2023, there were 159 billionaires in Australia with average wealth of $3.2 billion each. Their total wealth was $503 billion – so that 3.2% of all household wealth was held by 0.0007% of all adults.

Policy solutions presented: 

• Reform the tax treatment of housing to discourage speculative investment that inflates home prices (such as curbing negative gearing, reducing CGT concessions and extending state land taxes to owner-occupied dwellings)
• Remove inequities in the tax treatment of superannuation contributions; and
• Extend the 15% tax on superannuation investment income tax to post-retirement accounts, which are currently tax-free.