Pay by country

Labourer pay, country by country.

One method for every bar: live ads, medians, the sample behind each number. Annual compares to annual, hourly to hourly — never mixed.

Advertised hourly rate

Careerjet ads showing pay · median of advertised ranges · bars £-converted for scale, ECB 2026-08-04 · bars start at zero

Australia

A$35.11/hr ≈ £18.36n=58

£16.50/hr ≈ £16.50n=37

Canada

C$25.00/hr ≈ £13.22n=21small sample

New Zealand

NZ$27.00/hr ≈ £11.82n=19small sample

Benchmarks — different measures, so they sit beside the chart, not in it:

UK · Adzuna guide: £46,473/yr — advertised annual MEAN, 6,858 salary-bearing ads
Australia · Adzuna guide: A$97,086/yr — advertised annual MEAN, 1,020 salary-bearing ads
UK · ONS official: full-time “Elementary construction occupations n.e.c.” earned a median £28,600 in 2025 — earned pay runs below advertised offers.

Every bar: Careerjet live ads, one method — typed salary fields honoured and band-validated, URL-deduplicated, MEDIAN of advertised range midpoints, minimum 10 pay-bearing ads. Periods never mixed: annual compares to annual, hourly to hourly. Dubai monthly ads annualise ×12 (calendar arithmetic, no hours assumptions). Cells that fail to fetch are excluded, never guessed.
The £ column uses ECB reference rates via frankfurter.app, 2026-08-04 · AED via the 3.6725/USD peg · a currency conversion, NOT a purchasing-power or cost-of-living comparison.
Tax and living costs differ wildly — a bigger number abroad is not automatically a better life.

Data refreshed 2026-08-05.