Average wage for
Employment Levels
Around 33,600 people are currently employed as Payroll Clerks in Australia. This is set to increase slightly to 34,500 people by 2019, according to the Department of Employment.
Employment by State
37.3% of all Payroll Clerks are employed in NSW. The area with the lowest number of Payroll Clerks is TAS, with only 1.8%.
Gender Split
This is a very female dominated industry with 14.8% of Payroll Clerks being male and 85.2% female.
Age Brackets
The most popular age for people working as Payroll Clerks is 35-44 years old, with 28.6%. A small percentage (3.1%) of people get into this career path younger, aged 20-24. There is also a number of people who enjoy a career as Payroll Clerks, with 5.4% aged 55-59.
Hours Worked
Payroll Clerks work an average of 36.4 hours a week which is 4.5 hours lower than the average for all occupations.
Education Level
The majority of Payroll Clerks have a Years 11 & 10 qualification (26.3%) or are at a Year 12 level (22.9%). 50.9% of people have a Cert III or higher, whilst 49.1% have a qualification which is Year 12 or lower.
Payroll Clerk Duties & Tasks

Creating and maintaining files for employees to record payroll data
Updating and maintaining files for existing employees to record information
Preparing payroll data from time sheets and other payroll and personnel records
Handling wage and salary payments
Providing information to employees and managers on payroll matters including tax issues, benefits and deductions
May assist in maintaining superannuation and other deduction and contribution records
*The information provided on this page is from the Department of Employment’s Job Outlook website. All salary ranges are from Payscale. Where jobs are not exact matches, job areas have been used. This information is to be used as a guide only.