Where Australia’s richest tradies live

The International Construction Market Survey from British construction company Turner & Townsend found the average Melbourne tradies’ salary was more than four other Australian capitals and only behind four US and two Swiss cities.

This means the average Melbourne construction worker would make $243,000 a year if they worked a regular 38 hour week.

Out of the 88 global markets that were surveyed, Geneva had the highest average hourly salary of $175.50, followed by Zurich at $174.50, San Francisco at $172.82, New York at $169.48, Boston at $163.55 and Los Angeles at $134.64.

In Australia, Perth came in second behind Melbourne with an average hourly wage of $117.28, followed by Brisbane at $111.10, Sydney earning $106.24 and Adelaide at $97.85.

The average hourly pay for Australia and New Zealand was $99.33.

The report noted the region recorded a 6.5 per cent increase in labour costs in the past year as part of a massive 28 per cent jump since 2019.

“The loss of skilled migration during 2020-21 had a considerable impact on the availability of construction labour in these markets, which has subsequently pushed up labour costs, making it the second most expensive region for construction labour,” the report said.

Turner & Townsend Managing Director WA Matt Billingham added “material prices, labour shortages and extended projects schedules” were also driving higher construction costs.

Australia’s low 3.9 per cent employment rate was highlighted as an issue, with staff shortages widely reported and temporary business shutdowns common.

Ten per cent of respondents said rising costs of construction and skilled labour shortages had a significant or high impact on the delivery of construction projects.

But in some better news for the industry, total construction recovered to close to pre-pandemic levels in 2021 after falling in 2020.

Originally published as Melbourne tradies are richest among Aussies and seventh highest paid in the world