Australian's Real Incomes, page-13

Just be mindful the figures can become a nonsence if used incorrectly.

Reason - if you want to look at median to deal with say mortgage stress or income to house price ratios, look at household income. A lot of households have a full time worker and part time worker, noting the trend in part time employment since the 1970s and increase in women % in the workforce, so combines their income is above the average but when done on a median individual basis is below the average, possibly if the fulltime income earner is at the average for example.

Average income removes this skew caused by part time employment in households on top of a full time worker.

Obviously if a household has only one part time worker that is an issue, but solely relying on median to argue a point is flawed.

If you want to use median, then need to remove the distortion of households where you have either a full time worker with a part time worker and/or two part time workers on effect earning the equivalent combined of a full time wage.

That is why I use the average, because the median is likely to understate household income, which is then how you deal with the issue of income to house price ratios.

It is not a perfect science because you can have two full time workers as well, but if you want to deal with the issue of income stress, it is at a household level not at a median income level.

All IMO