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AUSTRALIANS are now among the richest group of people in the world. Over the past six years, average disposable income in Australia has risen by 12 per cent.
The rich have got richer faster than anyone else, but the benefits of economic growth have also spread to the poor, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' 2004 Social Trends.
Those on low incomes receive an average of a net $245 a week, which is 8 per cent more than six years ago after accounting for inflation.
Government pensions and allowances account for three-quarters of the income of people in this group.
People in middle-income households have average after-tax earnings of $413, which is an 11 per cent rise over the six-year period.
Those in high-income households average $903, an increase of 14 per cent.
Australians are not only earning more than they were six years ago, they are also earning more than most other people in the world.
The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) annual review of wages and taxation, shows the average after-tax income of Australians is second only to Korea's.
The survey compares incomes of different family types and income levels. Australia is among the top four of the 30 OECD members for all groups.
For example, a family in Australia with two children, with one parent earning the average weekly wage and the other earning two-thirds of average weekly earnings, has an after-tax income equivalent to $US47,863 ($70,255).
This is 10 per cent more than a similar family in the US, and 21 per cent more than in Japan or Germany.
The OECD study finds marginal tax rates for Australians are close to the OECD average for people on middle incomes.
But the Australian marginal tax rate for people on high incomes of 48.5 per cent (including the 1.5 per cent Medicare health levy) is significantly higher than the OECD average of 41.3 per cent.
The study highlights the problem that the Australian tax system creates for people on low incomes whose family payment benefits are withdrawn as their incomes rise.
A single parent with two children with an income two-thirds of the average wage loses half of every additional dollar they earn either in tax or withdrawal of benefits.
The OECD average marginal tax rate for such a person is only 33 per cent.
But the study puts paid to the notion that Australians pay more tax than people in other developed nations.
A single person with no children earning an average income in Australia pays 24 per cent of their income in tax, which is slightly less than the OECD average and roughly the same as that paid in the US and Britain.
People on high incomes in Australia pay an average of 33 per cent of their total income in tax, which is close to an OECD average that is skewed by the high tax rates paid in much of Europe.