Well Paid Trades in Australia: 12 Ranked by Real Pay

By Mustafa Tarabya, founder of CVBooster · Published 2026-09-12 · Updated 2026-09-12

9 min read

Four trades pay well above the Australian median and eight do not, and the gap is not where the trade-school brochures put it. Measured in September 2026 against the Australian Bureau of Statistics, construction management, electrical distribution, crane operating and electrical work clear the median comfortably, while carpentry, plumbing and bricklaying sit below it. The ABS Employee Earnings release for August 2025 records that "median employee earnings in main job was $1,425 per week", and its Employee Earnings and Hours survey puts the median for technicians and trades workers at $1,535.80 a week. Every figure below carries its ABS source and date, and every trade gets the resume line that wins the interview. Written by Mustafa Tarabya, who hired for his own company, read every application himself and now writes CVBooster's guides.

The resume line matters more in trades than anywhere else, because tickets and licences are the screening filter and most applicants bury them.

The line that gets a trades resume read

Tailor my CV to this job

Put that block on page one, above the work history. A supervisor reading forty applications is filtering on tickets first and stories second.

The twelve trades, ranked by median full-time earnings

The "against the median" column is the Labour Market Insights wording, comparing each occupation with the all-jobs median of $1,593 a week in the same survey. Note that plumbing, the trade most often named as a licence to print money, is recorded as "much lower than the all jobs median".

How the pay numbers were checked

• The occupation figures come from the Australian Government's Labour Market Insights profiles, each of which cites "Full-time median earnings and median hourly earnings: ABS, Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2021". They are medians for employees, not business owners.
• The current national picture comes from the ABS Employee Earnings release for August 2025, which records median employee earnings of $1,425 a week in main job, and from the ABS Employee Earnings and Hours survey, which puts full-time non-managerial average weekly total cash earnings in construction at $2,249.10 and in mining at $3,216.80.
• Minimum rates for each trade are set by modern awards, not by the market, and those are reviewed each year by the Fair Work Commission. An award rate is a floor, not a forecast.
• No figure here is an advertised salary or a training provider's estimate. Where you see ranges like "$150,000 to $170,000" for an electrician on a college website, that is marketing, and the ABS median for the same occupation is $2,120 a week.

The honest reading: the industry you work in moves your pay more than the trade you hold. Mining averages beat construction averages by around a thousand dollars a week in the same ABS survey, which is why an electrician on a Pilbara roster and an electrician on domestic fit-outs are in different jobs.

Construction manager: the top of the table

Not a trade in the apprenticeship sense, but where trades go. The ABS median of $3,497 a week is more than double the all-jobs median, and most holders arrive from a trade plus fifteen years of sites rather than from university.

Electrical distribution and crane operating: the two overlooked ones

Both sit above $2,400 a week and neither is what a school careers night recommends. Electrical distribution work means poles, lines and substations, usually after an electrical apprenticeship. Crane and hoist operating is licensed rather than apprenticed, which makes it the fastest route on this list to above-median money.

Electrician and metal fitter: the reliable pair

Both are just above $2,100 a week in the ABS survey, both are Certificate III apprenticeships, and both have a licensing or specialisation step that separates the median earner from the top quartile.

Structural steel, welding and telecommunications

Structural steel and welding trades sit at $1,760 a week, above the median but well short of the top four. Telecommunications trades work is recorded at $1,542, below the all-jobs median, and pay there depends heavily on whether you hold a cabling registration and fibre qualifications.

Carpentry, plumbing, bricklaying: below the median, and what to do about it

These three are the trades most young people are pushed towards, and all three are recorded below the all-jobs median for employees. That is not an argument against them. It is an argument for treating the apprenticeship as step one and a licence, a specialisation or your own ABN as step two.

Tailor my CV to this job

What to fix on a trades resume

• Tickets buried on page two. Move them above the work history.
• Licences without numbers or expiry dates. A number is checkable, a claim is not.
• No site or roster information. Say FIFO, 14-and-7, shutdown, or local, because it filters half the applicants out either way.
• Duties instead of volumes. "Service calls" is a duty. "950 service calls a year" is evidence.
• Nothing about supervising apprentices. It is the cheapest evidence of seniority you will ever have.

If you are starting out, read the first job resume guide and the Australian referees convention before you send anything. Moving from the tools into management? Start with the career change resume and the Australian cover letter sample.

Frequently asked questions

What are well paid jobs?

In Australian terms, anything paying above the ABS median employee earnings of $1,425 a week in August 2025. Among trades, construction management, electrical distribution, crane operating, electrical work and metal fitting all clear that, according to the ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours.

What are the most well paid careers?

On the trades side, construction management leads at a median of $3,497 a week, followed by electrical distribution at $2,486 and crane operating at $2,438. Industry matters as much as occupation: mining averages beat construction averages by around a thousand dollars a week in the same ABS survey.

What are well paid careers?

Careers where a licence or a high risk work ticket is the barrier, because the barrier is what holds the pay up. Electrical work, powerline work, crane operating and licensed plumbing specialisations all work this way. Trades with no licensing step are the ones sitting below the median.

How to get a well paid job without a degree?

Take an apprenticeship into a licensed trade, then add the licence or specialisation that most holders skip. The ABS medians show the difference: an electrician at $2,120 a week against a bricklayer at $1,401, with the same Certificate III level of qualification behind both.

How to get a well paid job without qualifications?

Licence-led routes are the fastest. Crane, hoist and lift operating has a median of $2,438 a week on the ABS survey and is entered through high risk work licences rather than a four-year apprenticeship. Plant operating and dogging work similarly, at lower medians.

More in this series: Jobs that pay well without a degree

• Best Paying Non Degree Jobs in the US: 8 With CV Lines
• High Paying Low Stress Jobs in the UK: 10 With CV Lines
• Highest Paying Jobs in Fashion: 8 Salaries and CV Lines
• Less Stress Jobs That Pay Well in the UK: 8 With CV Lines
• Short Careers That Pay Well: 8 With Two Years of Training

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