Ever wondered which jobs pay the best? Wonder no longer. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) just revealed the 10 top-paying jobs in Australia. Here are the results.

Medical practitioners scored highest…

Medical practitioners tend to make good money everywhere, and when you consider that there are only 4,157 surgeons in Australia, it makes sense that they’d have the #1 highest-paying job. With an average taxable income of $457,281 yearly, surgeons scored the top spot in ATO’s results.

Medical practitioners secured some of the other top spots as well: anaesthetists scored spot #2 with $426,894; internal medicine specialists came in at #4 with $334,267; psychiatrists came in at #5 with $270,412; and other medical practitioners made #6 with $251,722.

…but financial professionals also did well

If there’s another industry that did well overall in the results, it’s the financial sector. With a yearly salary of $341,798, financial dealers made the #3 spot; and financial investment advisors secured the #10 spot with $169,608.

The other jobs that made the top 10 were mining engineer, judicial or other legal professional, and chief executive officer or managing director.

Here’s the list in full:

1. Surgeon: $457,281
2. Anaesthetist: $426,894
3. Financial dealer: $341,798
4. Internal medicine specialist: $334,267
5. Psychiatrist: $270,412
6. Other medical practitioners: $251,722
7. Mining engineer: $196,178
8. Judicial or other legal professional: $193,388
9. Chief executive officer or managing director: $177,506
10. Financial investment advisor or manager: $169,608

What about the average wage?

The ATO also revealed the average wage in Australia: $68,289 in annual taxable income. But the median wage was much lower at $50,980.

So what’s the difference? The average wage is the halfway number if you add up every Australian’s yearly wage; the median is the actual midway point—if you took every Australian’s wages, half of them would be higher and half would be lower than the median number. The median tends to be a better indication of where most people’s income is at, as the average can get thrown off by a high-earning minority.

So how do those numbers compare to previous years? They’re higher than the 2019-20 average and median, which were $63,882 and $48,381, respectively.

While rising wages can be good news for workers, they tend to be accompanied by a rise in inflation: something we’re definitely seeing with the current cost of living crisis. Rising wages can also push employers to cut numbers in an attempt to save money. These will all be things to keep an eye on as we move forward, and as more data comes in for this financial year.