Most people moving to Australia from the UK go one of two ways. The Working Holiday visa lets British citizens aged 18 to 35 work there for up to three years (three 12-month visas), and since July 2024 Britons no longer have to do farm or other “specified” work to get the second and third. To stay for good you need a skilled visa: sponsored by an employer, or a points-tested visa that leads to permanent residence. Whether the move pays depends on your job. Once you allow for tax and for what money buys, a typical full-time worker keeps about 11% more in Australia than in England. Electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians and nurses come out 17% to 27% ahead, while lawyers, pharmacists and accountants are better off in the UK. And on top of pay, Australian employers put 12% of salary into a pension (superannuation), against a 3% legal minimum in the UK.
Most guides on this compare an average salary converted at the exchange rate, which flatters Australia: its prices are higher than the exchange rate suggests. Below, we’ve put 10 jobs through both tax systems with official pay data, converted the result at the World Bank’s price-level rate, and added the visa fees and income thresholds that changed on 1 July 2026.
The key figures
| Figure | UK | Australia | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median full-time pay | £40,911 (April 2026) | A$98,124 (May 2025) | ONS ASHE; ABS Employee Earnings and Hours |
| Take-home at that pay | £32,976 (England) | A$76,524 | Paygrade calculation, 2026 tax rules |
| Employer pension on top | 3% minimum, on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 | 12% superannuation | GOV.UK; Superannuation Guarantee Act |
| What £1 buys, in Australian dollars | A$2.09 (price levels), A$1.90 (exchange rate) | World Bank 2025; Reserve Bank of Australia, 30 Oct 2026 | |
| Minimum wage | £12.71 an hour (age 21+) | A$26.44 an hour | GOV.UK; Fair Work Commission, from 1 July 2026, via Study Australia |
| Rent | £1,406 a month average (London £2,338) | Sydney, new leases: A$780 a week | ONS, Sep 2026; NSW government bond data, Apr to Jun 2026 |
| Inflation | 3.5% (Sep 2026) | 4.3% (Sep 2026) | ONS; ABS |
| Working Holiday visa | Ages 18 to 35, up to 3 x 12 months, A$840 | Migration Regulations 1994 | |
| Skilled Independent visa (189) | A$6,135 for the main applicant | Migration Regulations 1994, from 1 July 2026 |
Will you earn more in Australia? Take-home pay, job by job
Australian salaries look huge because a dollar is worth about half a pound: the median full-time worker earns A$98,124 against £40,911 in the UK. The fair comparison is what you keep after tax, measured in what it buys. So for each job we took the official median for full-time workers in both countries, ran it through each tax system (England and Australia, 2026 rules, a single person with one job) and converted the Australian take-home at the World Bank’s purchasing power parity rate for household spending: A$2.09 buys what £1 buys (2025).
| Job | UK gross | UK take-home | Australia gross | Australia take-home | In UK buying power | Difference | Super on top |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrician | £40,717 | £32,836 | A$113,932 | A$87,274 | £41,804 | +27% | A$13,672 |
| Plumber | £39,179 | £31,728 | A$103,480 | A$80,166 | £38,399 | +21% | A$12,418 |
| HVAC technician | £42,198 | £33,902 | A$109,200 | A$84,056 | £40,262 | +19% | A$13,104 |
| Registered nurse | £44,928 | £35,868 | A$113,984 | A$87,309 | £41,821 | +17% | A$13,678 |
| Welder | £35,977 | £29,423 | A$87,776 | A$69,488 | £33,284 | +13% | A$10,533 |
| All full-time employees | £40,911 | £32,976 | A$98,124 | A$76,524 | £36,655 | +11% | A$11,775 |
| Software engineer | £59,862 | £45,277 | A$131,924 | A$99,508 | £47,664 | +5% | A$15,831 |
| Aircraft mechanic | £48,965 | £38,774 | A$102,960 | A$79,813 | £38,230 | -1% | A$12,355 |
| Accountant | £50,745 | £39,990 | A$104,156 | A$80,626 | £38,620 | -3% | A$12,499 |
| Lawyer | £57,198 | £43,732 | A$107,640 | A$82,995 | £39,754 | -9% | A$12,917 |
| Pharmacist | £55,410 | £42,695 | A$101,712 | A$78,964 | £37,824 | -11% | A$12,205 |
Three things stand out:
- Trades and nursing are where Australia pays. An electrician’s median is A$113,932, almost the same as a registered nurse’s and well above the national median, while in the UK both sit close to it. That’s the opposite of what we found for Canada, where trades came out slightly behind.
- Professionals gain less, or lose. Lawyers, pharmacists and accountants earn a smaller premium in Australia than in Britain, and after Australia’s higher prices they keep less.
- Super is extra. The 12% superannuation guarantee is paid by the employer on top of the salaries above, into a fund you can’t normally touch until retirement. A UK employer only has to pay 3% of earnings between £6,240 and £50,270. For a nurse that’s about A$13,700 a year going into savings that the take-home column doesn’t show.
Converted at the bank rate instead (A$1.90 to the pound on 30 October 2026), every Australian figure would look about 10% better: a typical worker’s A$76,524 would be £40,236 rather than £36,655. That gap is why exchange-rate comparisons overstate how much better off you’d be.
For more on each job in Australia, see our pages for electricians, registered nurses and plumbers, or salaries in Australia for every career we cover, and salaries in the UK for the British side of the comparison.
Tax: what comes off an Australian payslip
Australia’s 2026-27 tax year runs from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. For residents:
- No tax on the first A$18,200, then 15% up to A$45,000 (cut from 16% this year, and due to fall to 14% in 2027-28), 30% to A$135,000, 37% to A$190,000 and 45% above that.
- Medicare levy: 2% of taxable income, which helps fund Medicare, the public health system (less on low incomes). Single people earning over A$105,000 without private hospital cover also pay the Medicare levy surcharge of 1% to 1.5%.
- A new A$1,000 standard deduction for work expenses from 2026-27, which you can take instead of claiming your actual expenses if they come to less.
- No National Insurance. There is no employee contribution like it on top of income tax and the Medicare levy.
On the median A$98,124 that comes to A$19,657 of income tax and A$1,942 of Medicare levy, leaving A$76,524 (78% of gross). In England, £40,911 loses £5,668 to income tax and £2,267 to National Insurance, leaving £32,976 (81%).
Working holiday makers are taxed differently: 15% from the first dollar up to A$45,000, with no tax-free threshold, then the normal rates. On A$40,000 that’s A$6,000 of income tax, against A$2,495 for a resident (plus a resident’s A$780 Medicare levy). Your employer still pays 12% super, but if you claim it back when you leave Australia, the part paid while you were a working holiday maker is taxed at 65%.
Cost of living: rents and prices
The World Bank’s price-level figures say A$2.09 buys what £1 buys across household spending in 2025, while the bank rate was A$1.90 in late October 2026. In other words, Australia is roughly 10% more expensive than the exchange rate suggests. Prices are also rising faster: inflation was 4.3% in the year to September 2026, against 3.5% in the UK.
Rent is where newcomers feel it. In Sydney, the median weekly rent on new leases was A$780 in April to June 2026, up 5.4% in a year, and A$800 for a two-bedroom flat: about A$3,470 a month, or roughly £1,820 at the exchange rate. Outside Sydney, the rest of New South Wales was A$540 a week. The UK average was £1,406 a month in September 2026, and £2,338 in London. These aren’t quite like for like: the NSW figure is new leases only, which is what you’d pay on arrival, while the ONS figure covers existing tenancies too and so runs lower than current asking rents.
There’s no official index comparing everyday costs city by city. Figures you’ll see elsewhere for the price of a coffee or a pint come from crowd-sourced websites, not statistics offices.
Visa routes from the UK in 2026
Most visa fees rose 25% on 1 July 2026. The fees below are those in force now, from the Migration Regulations as they stood on 2 October 2026.
Working Holiday visa (subclass 417)
- Who: UK passport holders aged 18 to 35 when they apply. You can’t bring dependent children.
- How long: 12 months, renewable twice, so up to three years in all. Your first visa must be applied for from outside Australia.
- No specified work for Britons: since 1 July 2024, UK passport holders don’t need to do 3 or 6 months of farm or other specified work to qualify for a second or third visa.
- Work: you can work for the whole stay, but usually no more than six months with one employer.
- Fee: A$840 for the first visa, A$1,000 for a second or third.
It’s a popular route: 42,759 Working Holiday visas went to UK citizens in the six months to December 2025, almost a third of all of them.
Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482)
This replaced the Temporary Skill Shortage visa in December 2024. An approved employer sponsors you for a job, and you need at least 12 months of full-time work in that occupation in the last five years. There are three streams:
- Specialist Skills: for jobs paying at least the Specialist Skills Income Threshold, A$146,576 from 1 July 2026.
- Core Skills: for jobs on the core skills occupation list paying at least the Core Skills Income Threshold, A$79,423 from 1 July 2026.
- Labour Agreement: through an agreement between the employer and the government.
The fee is A$4,015 for the main applicant and each adult family member, and A$1,005 per child. You need health insurance for your stay.
Points-tested skilled visas (189, 190 and 491)
These don’t need an employer. You register interest, and the government invites the highest scorers in each occupation.
- Age: you must be under 45 when invited.
- Pass mark: 65 points. Age 25 to 32 scores 30; a bachelor’s degree 15; eight years of skilled work overseas 15; proficient English 10 and superior 20.
- English: a UK passport counts as competent English, but you need a test score to earn the extra points.
- Skills assessment: a positive assessment from the body for your occupation.
- Which visa: the 189 is permanent with no sponsor; the 190 is permanent and needs a state or territory to nominate you (worth 5 points); the 491 is a provisional visa for regional areas with state or family sponsorship (worth 15 points).
- Fees: A$6,135 (189) or A$6,140 (190 and 491) for the main applicant, A$3,070 for a partner and about A$1,540 per child.
How many places there are, and what’s changing
The government’s 2026-27 permanent migration programme has 185,000 places, 132,240 of them in the Skill stream, but 129,590 are set aside for people already living in Australia. That leaves 55,110 for applicants overseas, “predominately” for highly skilled migrants. The same Budget announced a reform of the points test (to favour “better educated, higher-skilled and younger” migrants) and of the Working Holiday Maker programme, including “expanding the use of ballots”. Neither was in the law by the end of October 2026, so check the rules before you apply.
If you’re 18 to 35, the Working Holiday visa is often the first step: it lets you find an employer willing to sponsor you.
If your job is regulated
Electricians, plumbers and nurses all need an Australian licence or registration, and for a skilled visa you also need a skills assessment from the body named for your occupation.
- Electricians and plumbers: Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) assesses electricians, plumbers and air-conditioning mechanics for migration, including a practical test, and issues an Offshore Technical Skills Record. That isn’t a licence. In Victoria it lets you apply for a supervised worker’s licence; you then do “Australian Context Gap Training” and must “work under supervision for a minimum of 12 months” before applying for a full electrician’s licence. Western Australia is similar: a permit to work under supervision, gap training within two years and at least 12 months supervised. Plan for a year on a supervised licence. The 2026-27 Budget funds a pilot of faster assessment-to-licensing routes for electricians and plumbers.
- Registered nurses: since April 2025, nurses with at least 1,800 hours of practice in the UK (or another approved country) can register through a streamlined pathway with no Australian exams or qualification upgrades. Ahpra says it takes 1 to 6 months, against 9 to 12 before. For a skilled visa, nurses are assessed separately by ANMAC.
Before you go: pension, healthcare and tax
- Your UK State Pension won’t go up. It’s paid in Australia, but GOV.UK says “you will only get an increase every year if you live in” the countries it lists, and Australia isn’t one of them. It’s paid at the rate when you first claim or leave, and only goes back to the current rate “if you return to live in the UK”.
- Topping up National Insurance from abroad got harder in April 2026. You can no longer pay voluntary Class 2 contributions for time abroad. Class 3 (£18.40 a week in 2026/27) is still open, but only if you’ve lived in the UK for 10 continuous years or built 10 qualifying years.
- Healthcare depends on your visa. Permanent visa holders (189 and 190) can enrol in Medicare, Australia’s public health system. A 482 holder generally can’t until they apply for permanent residence. Under the UK-Australia reciprocal healthcare agreement, people who were living in the UK get medically necessary treatment as public patients and some subsidised medicines, but not dental care or ambulance travel; GOV.UK says that “generally, only immediate medical treatment is provided free of charge”.
- Tell HMRC. Form P85 tells HMRC you’ve left, and in the year you move the tax year is usually split into a UK-resident part and a non-resident part. As a non-resident you don’t pay UK tax on income earned abroad, but you may on UK income such as rent.
- Moving a UK pension is a big decision. A transfer has to go to a recognised overseas scheme (a QROPS) or it can be taxed at 40% or more, and some transfers face a 25% overseas transfer charge. GOV.UK sets out the rules; get regulated advice before you transfer, and be wary of anyone who contacts you offering a transfer.
Limits of these figures
- Different years. UK pay is from ASHE 2026 (April 2026); Australian pay is from the ABS survey of May 2025, the latest by occupation. Average Australian earnings rose 3.7% in the year to May 2026, so the Australian figures are probably a little low.
- One person, one job. Take-home is for a single person in England and Australia with one job, no student loan or HELP debt, and no Medicare levy surcharge.
- Price levels are national. The World Bank rate covers all household spending across each country, so it can’t capture the gap between Sydney and, say, Perth or Newcastle.
- Rules change. Visa fees and thresholds were checked against the Migration Regulations on 31 October 2026. This is information, not migration advice: check the Department of Home Affairs or a registered migration agent before applying. How we use official data is in our methodology.
FAQ
Can I move to Australia from the UK without a job offer? Yes, two ways: the Working Holiday visa (if you’re 35 or under) and the points-tested Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), which needs a positive skills assessment and an invitation but no employer. The 190 needs a state nomination rather than a job offer.
Is it cheaper to live in Australia than the UK? No. On the World Bank’s price levels, Australia is about 10% more expensive than the exchange rate suggests, and rents in Sydney are higher than the UK average. Higher pay in many jobs more than makes up for it, especially in the trades and nursing.
What is the minimum wage in Australia? A$26.44 an hour from 1 July 2026 for adults, or A$1,004.90 for a 38-hour week. That’s about £13.90 at the October 2026 exchange rate, against the UK’s £12.71.
Sources
- Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026, provisional, released 22 October 2026 (median full-time pay £40,911; job medians from Table 14.7a, on each UK salary page).
- Australian Bureau of Statistics, Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, released 23 January 2026 (median weekly earnings of full-time employees A$1,887); job medians from Jobs and Skills Australia’s occupation profiles, on each Australian salary page. ABS, Average Weekly Earnings, May 2026.
- Take-home pay: Paygrade’s tax engine with HMRC 2026/27 rates and the Income Tax Rates Act 1986 and Medicare Levy Act 1986 as in force on 1 July 2026, with the A$1,000 standard deduction from the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026. Medicare levy surcharge thresholds from privatehealth.gov.au.
- Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 (12%); GOV.UK, Workplace pensions: what you, your employer and the government pay.
- World Bank, PPP conversion factor, private consumption (2025: Australia 1.4646, UK 0.7015 per international dollar), updated 8 October 2026; Reserve Bank of Australia, exchange rates (A$1 = £0.5258 on 30 October 2026).
- Minimum wages: Study Australia (Australian Government), the 2026 Australian minimum wage increase, 28 August 2026, reporting the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review 2025-26; GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage rates.
- NSW Department of Communities and Justice, Rent and Sales Report, rent tables for the June quarter 2026; ONS, Private rent and house prices, UK: October 2026.
- ABS, Consumer Price Index, September 2026; ONS, Consumer price inflation, September 2026.
- Migration Regulations 1994, compilation of 2 October 2026 (fees, Working Holiday and skilled visa criteria, points); explanatory statement to the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2026 (25% fee rise, CSIT and SSIT from 1 July 2026); Department of Home Affairs, Working Holiday Maker program report, 31 December 2025; Department of Home Affairs, arrangements for UK passport holders.
- Regulated jobs: Migration (LIN 19/051) Instrument (assessing authorities, compilation of 28 March 2026); Energy Safe Victoria, overseas qualifications; Government of Western Australia, electrician’s licence for interstate and international workers (updated 15 October 2026); Ahpra, streamlined pathway for internationally qualified registered nurses, 27 January 2025. Budget: Budget Paper No. 2, 2026-27 (migration program, Working Holiday Maker reform, TRA pilot). Superannuation (Departing Australia Superannuation Payments Tax) Act 2007, section 5 (65% for working holiday makers).
- GOV.UK: State Pension if you retire abroad, voluntary National Insurance abroad from April 2026, Class 3 rates, UK reciprocal healthcare agreements with non-EU countries, P85, tax on foreign income: residence, transferring to an overseas pension scheme; Health Insurance Act 1973 (who counts as an Australian resident for Medicare).