Hourly pay rates rose one per cent

Total hourly rates of pay, excluding bonuses, rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.0 per cent in the December quarter, official figures show.

The wage price index rose 3.9 per cent from a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Wednesday.

The median market forecast was for a rise of 0.9 per cent in the December quarter and 3.8 per cent from a year earlier.

In the September quarter, the index rose by an unrevised 1.1 per cent.

The index measures movement in underlying wages by calculating the change in the wage and salary cost of a basket of jobs.