How much do FIFO miners get paid?

FIFO miners' pay depends on the job: in October 2026 a truck or plant operator's middle rate was $62.50 an hour, a driller's offsider's $43 and an electrician's $83.25. The chart has each one as a year, before overtime or allowances.

What's the highest paying job in FIFO?

The highest paying job in the October 2026 FIFO ads was electrician, then boilermaker or welder, then mechanical or heavy diesel fitter. That ranking uses each job's middle ad, worked out for a whole 2:1 year. The high paying FIFO jobs near the top needed a trade or a high risk work licence.

Do FIFO workers pay for flights?

FIFO workers usually don't pay for flights between the point of hire and the site: the employer books the charter, and the ads say so ("+ flights, meal"). They do pay to get from home to that airport, and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) treats the trip as private travel, even a flight from another city.

Do FIFO workers make a lot of money?

FIFO workers make a lot of money a year because they work a lot of hours: 2,920 on a 2:1 roster against 1,976 in a city job. Per hour the gap closes, and the free camp is the part of the deal that stays.

FIFO Salary

Two FIFO workers in orange hi-vis at a camp mess table at lunch, one with his back to us and one in a cap, looking at a phone showing a job ad for a FIFO operator at $180,000 a year, with meal trays on the table and the servery behind them

The FIFO pay figure people quote is usually a yearly number, and the yearly number is the least useful one there is. It hides the hours, it hides whether the flights and the room are in it, and it hides what's left after tax. So these figures come from the job ads themselves, taken down on a single day, with the hours worked out underneath, and you can see what an ad is really offering before you apply.

What a FIFO salary is

A FIFO salary is what a fly-in fly-out job pays for a year of swings, an hourly rate or a yearly figure, with flights and camp on top. The yearly figure is high because a 2:1 roster, two weeks on and one off, works far more hours than a city job. Divided by those hours, most FIFO jobs pay a good rate rather than a remarkable one.

FIFO salary: Where to start

What does my job pay?Start here
Got an ad, want the real hourly rateStart here
Casual rate or a salary?Start here

Tax timeStart here
Comparing it with my city jobStart here
Want to run my own numbersStart here

Find FIFO pay rates

The ads that state a figure are on SEEK (opens in a new tab), Indeed (opens in a new tab) and Jora (opens in a new tab); most don't, so filter by salary where the board lets you. Put any rate you find into the calculator for the swing, the year and the take-home.

Before you apply, check where each ad's flights leave from, called the point of hire. Getting there is usually up to you.

FIFO salary at a glance

Middle ads	$232,000 (electrician) down to $101,000 (cleaner or housekeeper), the middle ad as a 2:1 year, October 2026
Hours a year	2,920 on a 2:1 roster; about 2,503 on 8:6; 2,190 on 7:7; 1,976 in a 38-hour city week
On top	Charter flights, a donga and three meals a day on site, and 12% super unless the figure is a "package"
Take-home	$88,408 a year on the camp utility middle rate, $162,968 on the electrician's, on 2:1 at 2026-27 rates
Tax	The same rates as any resident; no claim for getting yourself to the airport; no zone offset from a city address
Casual or salary	Casual rates are higher and carry no paid leave; a salary is lower per hour and brings leave

Pay figures from 249 ads on SEEK, Jora and Indeed, read 12 October 2026; take-home from the calculator.

How much do FIFO workers earn?

Short answer

FIFO workers in Australia were advertised at $101,000 a year as a cleaner or housekeeper up to $232,000 as an electrician in October 2026. Each figure is the job's middle ad worked out as a 2:1 year, and nobody publishes an official FIFO average. The averages online have no source you can check; the chart's 249 ads for 20 jobs were all read the same day.

Page one of Google will give you an average FIFO salary to the dollar, and no two pages give the same one, because there is nothing to average. There is no register of FIFO workers and no award called FIFO; there are camp cleaners, sparkies and truck operators on the same plane, paid three different ways. So the honest answer to "how much does FIFO pay" is a chart, not a number: what each job's ads were offering, with the middle ad marked on each.

FIFO pay by job, October 2026

Lowest ad to highest, as a year Middle ad

Electricianmiddle $232,000, $120,000 to $307,000
20 ads · Work out the take-home (electrician)
Boilermaker or weldermiddle $208,000, $175,000 to $248,000
20 ads · Work out the take-home (boilermaker or welder)
Mechanical or heavy diesel fittermiddle $207,000, $175,000 to $301,000
20 ads · Work out the take-home (mechanical or heavy diesel fitter)
Mine site nurse or paramedic$156,000 to $248,000
4 ads, too few for a middle figure · Work out the take-home (mine site nurse or paramedic)
Riggermiddle $194,000, $152,000 to $313,000
17 ads · Work out the take-home (rigger)
Plumbermiddle $187,000, $120,000 to $204,000
19 ads · Work out the take-home (plumber)
Truck or plant operatormiddle $183,000, $131,000 to $263,000
20 ads · Work out the take-home (truck or plant operator)
Carpentermiddle $176,000, $120,000 to $204,000
14 ads · Work out the take-home (carpenter)
Storepersonmiddle $161,000, $115,000 to $185,000
7 ads · Work out the take-home (storeperson)
Trade assistantmiddle $155,000, $131,000 to $166,000
6 ads · Work out the take-home (trade assistant)
Site administratormiddle $149,000, $102,000 to $161,000
10 ads · Work out the take-home (site administrator)
Driller's offsidermiddle $130,000, $105,000 to $190,000
18 ads · Work out the take-home (driller's offsider)
Trainee operatormiddle $126,000, $111,000 to $145,000
5 ads · Work out the take-home (trainee operator) Most trainee operator ads were for people living near the mine (Hunter Valley, Mudgee, Central Queensland), not FIFO. They're kept because they show what a trainee is paid.
Security officer$87,000 to $161,000
3 ads, too few for a middle figure · Work out the take-home (security officer)
Bus drivermiddle $112,000, $98,000 to $145,000
7 ads · Work out the take-home (bus driver)
Camp utilitymiddle $112,000, $76,000 to $146,000
13 ads · Work out the take-home (camp utility)
Cook or chefmiddle $108,000, $86,000 to $204,000
20 ads · Work out the take-home (cook or chef)
Cleaner or housekeepermiddle $101,000, $69,000 to $184,000
12 ads · Work out the take-home (cleaner or housekeeper)

Advertised pay from 235 job ads of 12 October 2026, on SEEK, Jora and Indeed. Hourly and day rates are shown as a year at that rate, working every shift of a 2:1 roster with 12-hour days, which is 2,920 hours. Salaries are shown as stated. The mark is the middle ad: half the ads pay more and half pay less. A job needs five ads to have one. Apprentices are in the table but not the chart, because most of their ads were for apprenticeships in town, not FIFO, and the rate rises each year of the four. Remote area nurses work contracts, often with on-call, not a roster, so a year at 2,920 hours would mislead. Their hourly rates are listed but not charted.

The advertised figures, before they're turned into a year

Job	Hourly ads	Salaried ads	Ads
Electrician	$60 to $105, middle $83.25	$120,000 to $151,950	20
Boilermaker or welder	$60 to $85, middle $71.25	$184,576 to $232,960	20
Mechanical or heavy diesel fitter	$60 to $103, middle $72	$180,000 to $190,000	20
Mine site nurse or paramedic	$69 to $85	$156,000 to $163,000	4
Rigger	$52 to $107.21, middle $66.50	None	17
Plumber	$50 to $70, middle $65	$120,000 to $140,000	19
Truck or plant operator	$45 to $90, middle $62.50	None	20
Carpenter	$50 to $70, middle $60.50	$120,000 to $150,000	14
Storeperson	$42 to $63.46, middle $55.50	$115,000	7
Trade assistant	$45 to $57, middle $53	None	6
Site administrator	$45 to $55, middle $52.50	$101,500 to $101,911	10
Driller's offsider	$36 to $56, middle $43	$120,000 to $190,000, middle $130,000	18
Trainee operator	$38 to $49.65, middle $43	None	5
Security officer	$55	$86,724 to $94,800	3
Bus driver	$37.34 to $49.50	$97,850 to $102,500	7
Camp utility	$35 to $50, middle $39.75; day rates $458.53	$76,138 to $95,000, middle $88,122	13
Cook or chef	$43 to $70, middle $48; day rates $437.54 to $503.63	$86,000 to $115,000, middle $100,050	20
Cleaner or housekeeper	$33 to $63, middle $44.50	$68,968 to $82,311, middle $76,503	12
Apprentice	$14 to $35, middle $27.50	None	7
Remote area nurse	$60 to $130.12, middle $110	None	7

FIFO salary with no experience

The entry jobs sit towards the bottom of the chart and still clear six figures over a 2:1 year: camp utility, cleaner, trainee operator, driller's offsider and trade assistant, all from the middle ad. Two things before you take those numbers home.

The camp jobs often run 2:1 and the offsider and trainee jobs vary, so the year depends on the roster you're offered. And twelve of the fourteen operator traineeships on SEEK in October 2026 wanted people already living near the mine. The no-experience page covers which door is open to you.

How is a FIFO salary worked out?

Short answer

A FIFO salary is worked out one of three ways: an hourly rate for every hour on site, a day rate for every shift, or a yearly salary. Super is on top unless the ad says "package" or "total", which means it's inside the figure. A casual rate is higher because it carries no paid leave.

The October 2026 ads use a few shapes, and they don't compare straight across. An hourly rate ("$65 - $80 p/h + Super paid on all hours worked") covers every hour you work, overtime included, and "flat" ("$56 flat p.h.") usually means the rate already covers nights and weekends. A day rate ("Daily pay rate: $503.63 + Super + Allowances") is one 12-hour shift.

A salary "+ super" is before super, and a "Total Salary Package" has it inside. The words after the figure, "+ Penalties", "+ Allowances", "+ P/H OT" (public holidays and overtime), are the parts that aren't in it yet.

Casual rate or salary

Fair Work's rule (opens in a new tab) is that a casual gets "a casual loading (a higher pay rate for being a casual employee)", and in return "casuals don't get most types of paid leave, notice of termination or redundancy pay". The chef ads show what that means. The middle salaried chef ad was $100,050 a year, which on a 2:1 roster is $34.26 for every hour worked, before tax; the middle casual chef ad was $48 an hour.

Which is better depends on whether you'll take the leave. The labour hire agencies mostly advertise the casual rate, and the mine owners and camp contractors the salary; how mining work is organised explains who is who.

Do FIFO workers get paid on their weeks off?

A FIFO worker on a salary is paid the same each pay period, on site or off. On an hourly or day rate, pay comes only for the hours or shifts worked, so the weeks off are unpaid.

How much is a FIFO salary per hour, per swing and per month?

Short answer

A FIFO salary per hour is the ad's rate; per swing it's that rate times 168 hours, for fourteen 12-hour days; per month it's a twelfth of the year, averaged. The middle camp utility ad, $39.75 an hour, is $6,678 a swing and $116,070 a year before tax on a 2:1 roster, $88,408 after it. The FIFO pay calculator does the sums for any rate and roster.

A hand holds a phone calculator reading 120000 divided by 2920 equals 41.10, beside a job ad with $120,000 circled, a 2/1 roster strip and 17.38 x 14 x 12 pencilled underneath — Divide the yearly figure by the hours that make it.

A 2:1 roster is 17.38 swings a year, each one 14 days of 12 hours, which is where 2,920 comes from. Divide any yearly figure by it and you have the hourly rate; multiply any hourly rate by it and you have the year. Here are the middle ads for four jobs through the calculator, before any overtime, allowance or bonus.

Middle ad, 2:1 roster	Before tax: a swing, a year	Take-home a year
Camp utility, $39.75 an hour	$6,678 a swing; $116,070 a year	$88,408
Driller's offsider, $43 an hour	$7,224 a swing; $125,560 a year	$94,861
Truck or plant operator, $62.50 an hour	$10,500 a swing; $182,500 a year	$130,255
Electrician, $83.25 an hour	$13,986 a swing; $243,090 a year	$162,968

Calculator results, October 2026; super is paid on top of each.

The roster moves the year more than the rate does. The same camp utility ad on a 7:7 roster (seven days on, seven off) is 2,190 hours and $87,053 before tax; the same operator ad on an 8:6 (eight on, six off) is about 2,503 hours and $156,429. A monthly figure is the year split twelve ways, so a month on site earns more than it and a month with two weeks at home less, and the roster has to sit beside it. The calculator takes your rate and your roster and gives the swing, the month and the pay after tax.

What does a FIFO salary include?

Short answer

A FIFO salary includes your flights to site, your room and meals there, and the employer's super on top of the figure. Overtime and allowances are usually extra, and the ad lists them after the pay.

The package is the part the yearly figure doesn't show. On site the room, three meals, the gym and the bus are paid for, so for two weeks in three you spend close to nothing. What that saves is your own sum, set by what the rent and the fridge cost at home.

The allowances sit outside the figure, and Sodexo's plumber ad, "$135,500 per year + P/H OT + Allowances + Super", is the pattern: a salary with the overtime paid hourly on top. Super is 12% of ordinary pay under the ATO's super guarantee, paid by the employer and not out of your rate.

What can FIFO workers claim on tax?

Short answer

FIFO workers can claim what any worker can: money spent to earn the income, not paid back, with a record to prove it. The trip to the airport is private travel, and a city address rules out the zone offset.

There is no FIFO tax. The ATO's rates for residents (opens in a new tab) in 2026-27 apply to a FIFO wage like any other, nothing on the first $18,200 and then 15%, 30%, 37% and 45% as the income climbs, plus the Medicare levy. What a FIFO worker can claim follows the ATO's guide for mining site employees (opens in a new tab) and its ruling on travel, checked October 2026.

FIFO worker tax deductions: what you can and can't claim

Getting to your point of hire isn't claimable. The ATO's ruling TR 2021/1 (opens in a new tab) uses a FIFO worker who lives in Sydney and is rostered on at Perth airport as its example: the Sydney to Perth flights are private travel.
Car trips to the airport are the same: "normal trips between your home and regular place of work" aren't deductible.
Airport parking: the ATO's pages don't name it for FIFO workers either way, so ask a registered tax agent before you claim it.
Overnight travel is claimable only when the job requires you to sleep away from home and you paid for it; the donga and the mess the employer provides are not a claim.
Tools you buy for work that the employer doesn't supply: $300 or less in the year you buy them, more over the tool's life.
The zone offset goes by where you live, not where you work. The ATO's words (opens in a new tab): "If your usual place of residence wasn't in a zone, you're not eligible."
Living-away-from-home allowance (LAFHA): the ATO says a LAFHA is non-assessable and then that "circumstances may be different for fly in, fly out (FIFO) workers", so read the ATO's page (opens in a new tab) and take it to an agent.

Using a FIFO tax accountant

If you use a FIFO tax accountant, check they're on the Tax Practitioners Board's register (opens in a new tab), which also finds a registered agent near you, in Perth, Adelaide or anywhere else. The calculator gives the tax on any rate; the agent gives the deductions.

Is FIFO pay really higher than city pay?

Short answer

FIFO wages are higher than city pay by the year and closer by the hour. The middle driller's offsider ad, $43 an hour, is $125,560 a year on a 2:1 roster, and the city rate that matches it after tax is $63.54 an hour. The difference is 944 extra hours at work and nights in a donga.

A suburban Perth street with a Perth Electrical van in a driveway, kids running towards it, a man mowing the lawn with a dog beside him and a plane overhead — The city sparky has the same trade and the same licence, and sleeps at home every night.

A commenter in an online thread asking whether FIFO pay is truly great put it plainly: a healthy pay packet, but work out the hourly rate and it doesn't seem special, because it's 12-hour days, every day. The official figure points the same way. In the ABS's May 2026 earnings (opens in a new tab), full-time adults in mining earned $3,224.20 a week in ordinary time against $2,083.70 across all industries; that counts everyone in mining, not only FIFO workers, and leaves overtime out.

The calculator puts it per job: a city job would need $58.74 an hour to match the utility rate after tax, $92.36 the operator and $123.02 the electrician. The money is real, and it's bought with hours and nights away. Some people on it still end up broke, and whether FIFO is worth it for you depends on what the money is for.

Is a FIFO salary right for you?

Two honest questions

Have you divided the year by the hours? Take the figure in the ad, divide by 2,920 for a 2:1 roster, and ask whether you'd do the job in town for that rate. If the answer is no, the roster is what you're being paid for.
Casual or salary, and have you priced the leave? The casual rate looks better in the ad and the salary looks better the week you're sick. Decide which you are before you compare two offers.

Ready to look?

If you've got an offer or an ad in front of you, run it through the calculator with your roster, then look at what the rest of the board is paying for the same job.

Fake ads turn up on real job boards too. An ad that asks you to pay a fee before you start is a warning sign: report it to Scamwatch (opens in a new tab).

The money is one question. Whether the life suits you is six more. Three minutes. Free.

Is FIFO right for me?