I recently did some research on MyCareer – an Australian job search service – about starting salaries of PR and communication professionals in Australia, and I came across some pretty interesting figures.
Turns out the average salary of a professional working in PR and communications in Australia is roughly $80,000, with corporate affairs & issues management topping the list at $96,346.
For Sydney in particular, the top paid sector in PR is with internal communications ($104,989). On the other hand, it seems like a job in consumer PR & publicity pays the lowest, with an average salary at $77,126.
Overall, the average Australian salary across all sectors is $94,320. Not surprisingly, the mining industry is the highest-paid industry with an average salary of $146,249 with fields like engineering, construction and telecommunications following close behind. A career in PR ranked 16th in average salaries across Australia; positioning it higher than fields like insurance, logistics and hospitality but below fields like real estate, accounting and marketing.
Here’s a graph of average salaries for PR and communications:
(the yellow line = average, the grey line = average minimum and the orange = average maximum)
In comparison to marketing:
And in comparison to advertising:
***images courtesy of http://content.mycareer.com.au/salary-centre/
that PR dude 
Hi Hao!
First of all, I’d like to commend you on a great blog. I’m a PR student too, about to graduate (eek) and also enter into the scary world of Communications. I guess it’s so refreshing reading about the highs (and lows) of another student.
I wish you all the success in your career…who knows, we may work together sometime!
Eirene
Hi Eirene!
Thanks a lot for the comment.
You’re about to graduate? That’s pretty exciting (and scary). I personally can’t wait to finish my degree and jump into the industry.
Good luck on your studies!
Cheers,
Hao
Great stuff, man. Would be interesting to know as well what the graduate/starting salaries in the industry are as well – might be really relevant to those planning to start out of uni? Just a thought.
Keep it up, man!
Thanks man, graduate starting salaries is a great topic to write about. Might just be my next blog post hmmmmm.
Cheers,
Hao