Mechanical Engineer Salary Australia 2026 — Median, Award Minimum & Take-Home

What mechanical engineers earn: 2023–24 tax returns

In the ATO’s Taxation statistics for 2023–24, 42,582 people gave their occupation as “Engineer - mechanical”. Among those who reported wages, the median salary or wage income was $115,872 and the average $123,198. Their average taxable income was $129,531.

Industrial and production or plant engineers share the mechanical engineers' ANZSCO unit group. Mechanical engineering technicians are a separate, non-professional occupation, shown because the job titles are easily confused.

ATO figures come from 2023–24 individual tax returns: everyone who gave this occupation, including part-time and part-year workers. Salary or wages is the gross wage income people reported (averages and medians count only those who reported some); taxable income adds other income such as interest and business income and subtracts deductions. Neither figure is a full-time rate or a legal minimum.

Median full-time pay

Jobs and Skills Australia puts median full-time earnings for Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers (ANZSCO 2335) at $2,614 a week ($67 an hour), against $1,852 a week for all occupations.

Median weekly pay of full-time, non-managerial adult employees before tax and salary sacrifice, from the ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours (May 2025) as published by Jobs and Skills Australia. It reflects what employers actually pay, including people on enterprise agreements or above-award salaries, so it is a market figure, not a legal minimum.

Mechanical Engineer pay after tax

What each figure on this page leaves after income tax and the Medicare levy, worked out with the same tax engine as the rest of this site. Use the row nearest your own salary to sense-check the net pay on your payslip.

2026–27 resident tax rates with the low income tax offset and the 2% Medicare levy; no HECS-HELP repayment and no Medicare levy surcharge. Superannuation is paid on top by your employer. Your employer withholds tax each pay from the ATO’s withholding schedules, so the tax on a payslip will not match these annual figures to the dollar. For the full breakdown see take-home pay on $125,000 (the nearest step to $123,198), or enter your own salary below.

The table assumes private hospital cover. A single person without it pays the Medicare levy surcharge of 1% to 1.5% once their income for surcharge purposes passes $105,000 (2026–27), which would lower the take-home on the higher rows.

Which award covers mechanical engineers

Part of Engineer Pay Rates, which lists every Professional Employees Award pay point and the rules all engineers share.

A mechanical engineer doing professional engineering duties — work that needs qualifications at least equal to a graduate member of Engineers Australia (cl 2.2) — is covered by the Professional Employees Award 2020 [MA000065] in any industry (cl 4.1(a)).

Mechanical engineering technicians and draftspersons are not doing professional engineering duties as the award defines them, so these classifications and minimums are not theirs; which award covers them, if any, depends on the employer's industry.

The award does not cover employees who are covered by the Black Coal Mining Industry, Airport Employees, Rail Industry, Electrical Power Industry, Water Industry, Port Authorities or State Government Agencies awards (cl 4.2).

A graduate engineer enters at Level 1 pay point 1.1 and moves up one pay point each anniversary to 1.4 (Schedule A.1.3); Level 2 is an experienced engineer.

Read the Professional Employees Award 2020 [MA000065] on the Fair Work Commission’s site (consolidated to 1 July 2026).

Mechanical Engineer award pay rates 2026–27

These rates apply from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026. Part-time employees are paid the same hourly rates for the hours they work.

Mechanical Engineer penalty rates and overtime

Percentages of the minimum hourly rate for hours worked at the employer's direction (cl 18.4, Schedule C). There is no Saturday daytime penalty under this award.

Overtime

• Hours over 38 a week are paid at the ordinary minimum hourly rate (cl 18.2(a)) — $38.47 an hour at pay point 1.4 — or taken as time off hour for hour by agreement (cl 18.3).
• Those rules fall away once your salary is at least 25% above your level's minimum (cl 18.6): $85,672.50 at pay point 1.1, $95,333.75 at pay point 1.4 and $98,545 at Level 2.

Work out a shift with penalties or overtime using the overtime pay calculator.

Allowances

Checking a mechanical engineer payslip

• Annual leave loading: when you take annual leave you must also be paid a 17.5% loading on your base rate (cl 19.2), unless your salary already includes an equivalent benefit. A loading has to be shown separately on the payslip (Fair Work Ombudsman, pay slips).
• Time off instead of overtime: if you agree to bank overtime as time off, it is taken hour for hour (cl 18.3); it should not also appear as paid overtime.
• Graduate pay points: from $68,538 at 1.1 your salary should step up on each anniversary to $76,267 at 1.4, unless your employer defers it in writing (Schedule A.1.3–A.1.4).
• Super and deductions: each payslip must show the super your employer paid, or will pay, for the period and the fund it goes to, and every deduction — salary sacrifice included — with the fund or account it was paid into (Fair Work Ombudsman, pay slips).

For what every line on a payslip should show, see understanding your payslip.

What this page does not show

• Award rates for mechanical engineering technicians and draftspersons, which depend on the employer's industry award.
• Enterprise agreement pay scales.
• Recruiter salary bands: they are not official figures.

Mechanical Engineer pay questions

Pay rates for other jobs