Miners and managers are among Australia’s highest-paid workers, and the gender pay gap still exists, research has revealed.

There were 10,647,200 employees in Australia in May 2018 with the average worker earning $1288.70 a week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ biennial Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours found.

Australia’s gender pay gap was on show in the data, with men who worked full time earning an average of $1811, compared to $1516 for women.

The nation’s top 25 per cent of income earners took home an average of $1686 per week, while the lowest-earning quarter made less than $682 over the same period.

The ABS pegged Australia’s average yearly full-time wage at $88,000.

“Full-time employees, who make up the majority of employees, received an average earnings of $1699 per week, which would be around $88,000 in annual terms,” ABS chief economist Bruce Hockman said.

However, while the ABS focused on the average annual wage (the total collective income earned divided by the number of earners), previous analysis by The New Daily has shown this metric is “significantly skewed” towards higher-income earners, and provides a less useful measure than the median wage of just over $55,000 a year.

In terms of the most highly paid of the major occupations, managers came out on top with average weekly earnings of $2424.50 ($60.40 per hour).

Managers comprised 7.1 per cent of all employees in Australia and had the highest average age of all the major occupations at 45.9 years.

“Professionals” accounted for the largest proportion of employees at 22 per cent, earning an average of $1751.50 a week ($54 per hour).

Sales workers had both the lowest average weekly earnings at $735.90 ($28.50 per hour) and age (33.7 years), and comprised 11.7 per cent of all employees.

Mining was the nation’s most lucrative industry, with workers taking home an average weekly pay of $2764.80 ($60.60 per hour).

Mining employees represented 1.6 per cent of all workers in Australia, and had an average age of 41.7 years.

Australia’s lowest-paid industry was accommodation and food services, where workers made just over $616 a week ($25.90 per hour).

The industry accounted for 7.5 per cent of all employees and had the lowest average age of all industries (30.1 years).

The largest proportion of employees worked in the health care and social assistance industry (13.8 per cent), where workers earned an average of $1176.50 a week and had an average age of 42.6 years.

Employees in the public administration and safety industry had the highest average age at 44.5 years.