“People are feeling, quite rightly, very annoyed and very upset about the fact that the costs of everything are rising, that their wages are not keeping pace with that, they’re seeing real wage cuts.” Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock acknowledged the squeeze on household budgets as abc.net.au reported that her own total remuneration reached $1.22 million for the 2025–26 period, including a base salary of $1.01 million.
Executive Compensation and the Reserve Bank Workforce
The figures from the 2026 annual report released on Thursday afternoon show that Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser received a total remuneration package of $955,033, underpinned by a $903,217 base salary. Meanwhile, the central bank’s four assistant governors collected between $743,000 and $868,000 each, and the chief operating officer received $905,543.
This executive compensation scale sits against a backdrop of enterprise agreement negotiations involving the bank’s junior staff. Lower-ranked employees have requested a pay increase of 11 per cent over three years alongside an inflation-protection mechanism to prevent real wage declines. However, abc.net.au noted that Ms Bullock emailed RBA staff last month asking them to vote for a 9.5 per cent raise over three years, hours after lifting interest rates for the fourth time this year. A majority of staff had rejected a similar proposal in July.
The Finance Sector Union stated that negotiations have dragged on since late last year with no movement from the central bank on its original offer. Voting for the current enterprise agreement proposal closes on Monday at 5 pm.
Remuneration Comparison Across Public Sector Entities
| Official / Role | Institution | Total Remuneration | Base Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michele Bullock (Governor) | Reserve Bank of Australia | $1,220,000 | $1,010,000 |
| Andrew Hauser (Deputy Governor) | Reserve Bank of Australia | $955,033 | $903,217 |
| Ellie Sweeney (Chief Executive) | NBN Co | $3,400,000 | Not Disclosed |
| Paul Graham (Chief Executive) | Australia Post | $3,300,000 | Not Disclosed |
| Dennis Barns (Chief Executive) | Snowy Hydro Limited | $2,100,000 | Not Disclosed |
The RBA governor’s pay tracks slightly above most federal departmental or agency heads, whose packages cluster between $900,000 and $1,000,000. Yet publicly owned corporations command significantly higher executive salaries. NBN Co Chief Executive Ellie Sweeney pulled in $3.4 million in total remuneration for 2025–26, rising from $1.9 million the previous year, making her Australia’s highest-paid public servant according to abc.net.au. Australia Post CEO Paul Graham received $3.3 million in 2024–25, while Snowy Hydro Limited CEO Dennis Barns collected $2.1 million in the same period.
For the broader Australian workforce, the median annual earnings sit at $74,672. Compounding cost-of-living pressures, a recent survey revealed that half of all young Australians are living with their parents, up from 39 per cent in 2001.
Productivity Demands and Labor Market Pressures
Defending the bank’s stance on wages, Ms Bullock argued that sustainable real wage increases depend strictly on productivity growth, which she noted Australia’s economy is struggling to deliver. If we don’t get productivity growth, there’s not going to be real wage rises coming down the pipeline,
she said, according to remarks published on the RBA speech archive.
The tension over wages coincides with shifting labor market metrics. Australia’s unemployment rate stands at 4.7 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms, marking a 0.6 percentage point increase from 4.1 per cent recorded when the RBA began raising interest rates in February. Bureau of Statistics data showed an estimated 39,300 fewer Australians were in work last month, while the number of unemployed individuals climbed by 8,900.
Ms Bullock noted at a fireside chat last month that an unemployment rate between 4.5 and 5 per cent may be necessary to remove sufficient heat from the labor market and bring inflation under control.
Negative Equity and Internal Workforce Growth
Beyond labor negotiations, the RBA’s annual report detailed a negative equity position of $11.3 billion at the end of June, deteriorating from a negative equity position of $5.3 billion in June 2025. The central bank attributed this shift to a large accounting loss for 2025–26, offset partially by valuation gains on gold holdings.
The RBA’s Governance Board maintained that negative equity does not impair the institution’s operational capacity. The deficit is expected to shrink over coming years through retained future profits, though returning the Reserve Bank Reserve Fund to its target level is projected to take more than a decade.
Meanwhile, the bank’s headcount expanded by 8 per cent over the past 12 months. The RBA now counts 2,201 employees, equal to 2,082 full-time equivalents, alongside 76 senior executives and 222 other highly paid staff. The institution stated that the workforce expansion supports its ongoing transformation and technology change agendas.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
