Salary Time Warp
Sources & Methodology
Data in the app is sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), and the Australian Institute of Petroleum (AIP). Wage annual figures are calculated as weekly earnings multiplied by 52.
Wage values in this app use city-linked full-time median weekly earnings from ABS Employee Earnings for 2014 onward (Darwin=NT proxy, Canberra=ACT proxy). For years before 2014, the app falls back to national AWOTE.
The app year selector intentionally starts at 2002 to align with full city-level housing coverage.
- Housing (city-level annual medians): ABS Total Value of Dwellings, Table 2 (Sep quarter 2025) (Median Price of Established House Transfers, capital city series; annual values use calendar-year average of quarterly medians)
- CPI (major cities + Australia): ABS CPI Table 17 (Dec 2025)
- Fuel prices (city-mapped annual petrol retail price): AIP Annual Retail Price Data (calendar-year petrol averages, inclusive of GST; city mapping: Sydney=NSW, Melbourne=VIC, Brisbane=QLD, Adelaide=SA, Perth=WA, Darwin=NT, Hobart=TAS, Canberra=National proxy; app converts cents/L to A$/L)
- City-linked median weekly earnings (2014+): ABS Employee Earnings (latest release) and ABS Table 2 workbook (Aug 2025) (Median weekly earnings, Persons, Full-time; GCC rows mapped to cities, with NT/ACT proxies for Darwin/Canberra)
- Weekly earnings release page: Average Weekly Earnings, Australia (May 2025)
- Current all-time weekly earnings table: ABS Table 3 Time Series Workbook
- Historical weekly earnings archive table (used for 1990-1994 stitch): ABS Archive Table 3 Workbook (May 2008 release)