The average weekly wage in Australia is now A$1257.20, after rising by 4.5 per cent in the year to August.

The quarterly seasonally-adjusted pace of average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE) rose 0.4 per cent in the three months to the end-August, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

This was a deceleration from the 0.8 per cent quarterly growth recorded in the three months to May.

The annual rate still sits uncomfortably on the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)'s perceived "line in the sand" for wage growth.

The composition of the AWOTE series tends to make it volatile, which is why the RBA prefers to use the wage price index, released on Wednesday, as one of its main guides to wage growth.

That index showed growth of 1.1 per cent in the September-quarter, the fastest quarterly pace in nearly two years, with the annual rate rising to 3.5 per cent.

Source : Bernama