Mining's payday perks finally dry up

Mining has been the land of get-rich-quick for those willing to bear the stifling heat and work in areas of Australia that few tourists would venture to visit, let alone the rest of the population.

Now that many mines are built and in operation, demand has naturally tailed off and provided many miners the opportunity to talk down salary expectations.

But the data hasn't exactly fit the miner's narrative. Mining has always been a high-paying industry, but according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the gap between mining wages and other highly paid sectors continued to widen over the past couple of years. 

But now, after a few years’ worth of talking down wages, SEEK has released data which confirms the miners’ point: the salary boom is well and truly over. While the industry’s average wage is still substantial, the job search firm found that the advertised average wage for the sector fell by more than $14,000 in the past year.

So, what happened to the mining sector’s salaries? According to recruiter Hays' national mining manager Chris Kent, the wage drop is indicative of a shift of focus in the mining sector. The people who built the mines are now being replaced with cheaper workers to operate the mines, dragging down the sector’s average wage.

"The holes are dug, the processing plants are built and now we've got to get the ore out in the most cost-efficient manner to export it for a profit," Kent says.

"This is the new norm for the short to medium term, until such time that [resource] supply dries up, and we need to start investing [in new mines] again."

But Kent adds the era of overly lavish salaries in the sector may be well and truly over. He suggests that the industry won’t allow for a repeat of the profitable but inefficient mining boom.  

"It was definitely unsustainable ... the industry would hope it never returns to that."

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