The "working poor" in a rich country

Australia still likes to describe itself as a high‑wage, high‑living‑standard economy. Yet a growing slice of the population ticks all the traditional boxes—full‑time job, renting or paying a mortgage, paying tax—but remains one big bill away from serious trouble. This is the working poor: people who are technically doing what the system expects and still cannot get ahead.[4][1]

Survey data from Roy Morgan show “keeping day‑to‑day living costs down” is now the single biggest issue for voters, outranking health, education, crime and climate change. Housing is central. National reviews suggest rents have risen roughly 40–45 per cent over the past five years, adding about 200 dollars a week to typical leases, while wage growth has run in the low‑to‑mid single digits. For many households, especially in capital cities, that means 30–40 per cent of after‑tax income disappears into rent before food, fuel, electricity or debt repayments are even considered.[9][10][11][4][7]

Regional studies report one in three people experiencing food insecurity, with stress concentrated among low‑income workers, single parents and those juggling casual shifts. Researchers link that directly to low pay, housing stress and mental ill‑health, noting that choices about what to eat are often made against the cost of rent, transport and basic healthcare. Among younger Australians, the Youth Barometer finds 85 per cent have faced financial difficulty in the past year, with many relying heavily on family support and around a quarter rating their mental health as poor. That kind of dependence effectively divides the generation into those with access to parental backing and those without.[8][5][7]

In policy debates, the working poor can fall between categories. They earn too much to qualify for much targeted welfare, but not enough for private health care, school fees, or a realistic path to home ownership in the areas where they work. Cuts or gaps in services—bulk‑billing clinics disappearing, public dental waiting lists blowing out, rent increases—land hardest on this group because there is little slack to absorb them.[4][1][3]

The phrase “cost of living” risks flattening this into a single problem, when it is really a stack of pressures: wages that did not keep up with inflation for several years, housing that has decoupled from local incomes, and essential services shifting costs onto users. For the working poor, the question is not whether Australia is rich in aggregate, but whether the structure of that wealth leaves any margin once the basics are covered.[10][9][4]

Sources
https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9797-most-important-issues-facing-australia-january-2025[4] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-08/rental-prices-surge-almost-44-per-cent-review-finds/105865000[9] https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/wage-growth[10] https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/wage-price-index-australia/latest-release[11] https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/socialjusticestocktake/act/[1] https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/news-centre/stories/2025/opinion-housing-stress-takes-toll-on-mental-health-heres-what-we-can-do-about-it[7] https://www.uow.edu.au/media/2025/food-insecurity-affects-1-in-3-regional-people—and-its-worse-for-those-with-poor-mental-healt[8] https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/australian-youth-barometer-2025-financial-pressures-intensify-for-young-australians-as-confid[5]