The analysis of data from 220,000 businesses and their 1.9 million employees suggests private sector Australian wages in SMEs are outpacing inflation, not lagging behind.
The results showed wages were up 8.2 per cent while inflation came in at 7.8 per cent over the same period, which is more than twice what the Australian Bureau of Statistics released with their Wage Price Index coming in at just 3.1 per cent.
In December, the median hourly rate for employees working in Australian SMEs was $35.42. After no change for two consecutive months, median hourly wages increased by 1.2 per cent since November. This increase could be due to the holiday period or annual wage reviews.
As of December 2022, the average number of employees among Australian SMEs was 20.7 points more than in January 2019, but the growth from November to December 2022 declined by -0.3 points.
While year-on-year comparisons showed SMEs are still growing (the index experienced 10.8-point growth between December 2021 and December 2022), the pace of growth appears to now be in decline.
Compared to the previous year (December 2021), SMEs of all sizes have reported growth. However, they are showing signs of struggle, displaying month-on-month declines.
Smaller enterprises (one to 19 employees) grew by 7.1 per cent in the past year (December 2021), but employee growth marginally declined (-0.3 per cent) from the previous month (November 2022).
Medium enterprises (20–199 employees) experienced modest employee growth in the past year of 23.7 per cent but declined in employee numbers (-0.2 per cent) compared to November 2022.
Larger enterprises (200+ employees) experienced the biggest growth in employee numbers year-on-year (32.1 per cent) but saw no change month-on-month.
