The Australian economy has undergone a "massive transformation" that "confuses the picture" on what adulthood looks like for the average Australian, Professor Peter Whiteford, who teaches public policy at Australian National University, Canberra, told Insider.
Millennials, he explained, are "both working very hard and feel like it's difficult to get ahead."
Their incomes are higher: Weekly pay for millennials sits at AU$1,527 — the equivalent of $57,304 annually in the US. At the same age, Gen Xers and baby boomers were taking home AU$930 and AU$520, respectively, according to the Australian Census Bureau. But, the rising cost of living without the financial security of major assets, like a house, makes it feel like that paycheck is having to stretch farther.
In their annual survey, Australian financial site Finder reported that 60% of millennials said they experienced financial stress in 2022 compared to only 29% of baby boomers.
"The incomes of millennials have actually grown faster than the incomes of baby boomers," Whiteford said. "But their wealth hasn't."
Millennials in Australia are forming households later as well. They are just as likely as previous generations to live with a partner, but half as likely to have kids, also according to the Census. In 2021, over half of millennials had never been married, double the amount of baby boomers who still hadn't walked down the aisle by 1991.