A salary of $100,000 is no longer considered lavish in Australia, especially during a cost of living crisis.

For the first time, the average salary of a full-time employee reached six figures.

The average full-time salary excluding bonuses and overtime was $100,017 in May, with wage levels now typically in the six-figure range in four out of 10 industries, new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows.

With an average wage of $156,796, mining was the highest paying industry.

The rest include IT, media and telecommunications ($126,734), finance and insurance ($118,726), professional, scientific and technical services ($116,761), electricity, waste, water and gas ($116,678), security in public administration, such as police ($105,877), and education, typically including teachers ($105,373).

The health and social care category was not far behind, with an average salary of $98,925, making it even better paid than construction workers and laborers at $94,734.

However, Alysia Sheppard, a 44-year-old single mother of two teenage sons, still struggles with the cost of living crisis despite earning a six-figure income.

She earns $105,000 as a sales representative for a She worked for an office supply company that supplies furniture to TAFEs, universities and schools, but just before payday she still only had $5 left.

“I know people will think, ‘Well, she makes good money,’ but it’s really hard.” she told Daily Mail Australia.

“At the moment I live week to week. I’ve been a single mother for 15 years – I have two teenagers.”

“I don’t have my mom and dad’s bank, I can’t move back in with my parents to make it work.”

“I feel a little trapped where I am now. Trying to get through it alone is really hard.”

While she could work from home, her job requires her to be in Sydney to meet with wholesale clients in the education sector, so there is little prospect of her moving to a city with cheaper prices.

“I used to spend $150 a week on groceries, now it’s sometimes close to $275 a week to feed the three of us,” she said.

“I don’t go to restaurants and cafes anymore. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink and I don’t go on vacation.”

In addition to her main job, she takes on various part-time jobs to pay her bills and tuition for the Catholic school.

“When the children were small, cleaning could be integrated into school lessons,” she said.

“I also did some odd jobs like removing wallpaper from a bedroom, working as a waitress at a house party, delivering chocolates and things like that.”

“It was only in the last 12 months that I had to rely on it to supplement my income.

“Last year I worked four jobs to make ends meet.”

Despite earning six figures, Ms Sheppard struggles to pay rent on a two-bedroom apartment in Dee Why on Sydney’s northern beaches.

The weekly rent of $590 is expensive, but in her suburb, where $701 is currently the median, according to data from SQM Research, it’s a bargain.

The dining room was also converted into a “temporary” third bedroom.

“My rent is about 45 percent of my income – anything over 30 percent, they say, is rental stress,” she said.

Someone earning $100,000 can buy a $650,100 home with just a 20 percent mortgage down payment.

However, this is well below the median apartment price in Sydney of $852,766, meaning that every apartment in the north of the city in its price range has only one bedroom.

The Central Coast is also expensive. In affordable suburbs near Tuggerah Lake such as Gorokan, more than 100km north of Sydney, the median house price there is $694,621, according to CoreLogic data.

For Ms Sheppard, the only alternative is to continue renting but purchase an investment property in a smaller, regional area such as Rockhampton in Central Queensland.

But her Higher Education Contribution Scheme debts for three degrees in teaching, interior design and marketing could make it difficult for her to get a loan despite her six-figure salary.

“I don’t qualify in the Sydney region, so I’m trying to build up a vested pension,” she said.

“I’m pretty much locked out until I pay off my HECS debt.”

Bridget Carkeet also earns a low six-figure salary as a clinical exercise physiologist in Ipswich, southwest of Brisbane.

The woman in her late 20s can pay off a four-bedroom home she bought for $500,000 in 2021, but has had to splurge on lunch as Ms Carkeet and her boyfriend Aidan Lunney rely on leftovers.

“We prepare meals and definitely bring lunch,” she told Daily Mail Australia.

“We just take the leftovers from our dinner from the night before, whatever that is.”

“We eat out maybe once a week, but we don’t use Uber Eats or anything like that.”

It had also already prepared for interest rate hikes in 2021, when interest rates were still at a record low of 0.1 percent.

Borrowers now have to pay 13 interest rates, putting pressure on even those with six-figure salaries.

“I knew interest rates were going to rise, so I worked out what I could afford on my current salary,” Ms Carkeet said.