A British expat has come under fire after revealing how much he earns as a traffic controller in Perth, with some branding it ‘insane, overpaid nonsense’.
In a recent video uploaded to his TikTok, Will, who works in traffic management in the city, shared a detailed breakdown of how much money he’s able to bank in just one week, brushing over tax, superannuation and double pay.
“Some weeks are higher, some weeks are lower. (This is) just so everyone can get an understanding of what the pay is like in traffic control,” he began the video which has since been watched more than 380,00 times.
“Before you Karen’s jump in the comments and say, ‘Oh, you don’t get that kind of work all the time. It’s not consistent,’ hear me out. I’m just doing a Wednesday-to-Wednesday week for you guys to have a look.
“So my base rate in traffic (control) is $37.99 an hour for small roads and then, for the bigger roads, it increases and you get penalties.
“For those dates (August 17 to 23), my gross pay was $2,281,26,” he said, adding that that number is “not take home”.
“I did 32 hours at $38 an hour,” he said, which saw him make $1,215.68.
“I then did double pay (which) was 8.25 hours for $68.38 an hour,” he added, making $564.14.
“I then did time-and-a-half, which was eight hours of that for $53.18 an hour,” he revealed, before noting that he made $425.44.
If you’d like to view this content, please adjust your .
To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide.
Will added that he had four hours of meal allowances, which is $19 an hour and saw him earn $76 in total.
“My tax for the $2,281.26 was $331,” Will shared, noting that his tax rate is “slightly different” to locals working the job because he is on a working holiday visa.
“I believe I’m on 15 per cent tax for a while and then it ramps up halfway through the year, basically. But (at) the start of every financial year, you get a nice 15 per cent tax bracket.”
Will revealed that “they put $145.88 into my superannuation”, and that his total net pay for that week came in at $1,950.26.
“So like I said, I don’t think that was too bad. It changes depending on what kind of road you’re on. If you’re on a local metro road in the city, you’re on $37.99 an hour,” he said.
“If you’re on highways, main roads or you do time and a half or double, depending on how many hours for that day you’ve done . . . you get more.”
“But anything for me over $1,500 a week, I’m happy with.”
His video has seen social media users pour into the comments section, many in disbelief over the large sum he is being paid.
“That’s insane overpaid nonsense,” one person wrote, while another added: “It’s actually amazing pay. But I’m sure it’s tedious work, I don’t think I could do it, I would go crazy.”
A third commented: “My pay as a teacher is lower.”