Want to double your salary? Job hopping is only half the answer.

Updated September 2026. Sources: ABS Job Mobility (31 July 2026), ABS Wage Price Index (19 August 2026), e61 Institute (Single Touch Payroll data), Reserve Bank of Australia (22 September 2026).

“Double your salary” is a big claim. Some people do it in a single move; most do not. What the Australian data actually shows is more useful than the slogan: people who change employers get materially bigger pay rises than people who stay, the gap has held up through a cooling job market, and the gains go to the people who move deliberately. Here is the evidence, and what to do with it.

Loyalty is paid at about three per cent

In the year to February 2026 only 7.2 per cent of employed Australians — about one million people — changed employer, down from 7.7 per cent the year before (ABS, Job Mobility). Wages for a fixed set of jobs grew 3.2 per cent over the year to June 2026, and 79 per cent of jobs recorded an annualised pay change of less than 4 per cent (ABS, Wage Price Index). The labour market has eased, with unemployment at 4.5 per cent in July 2026 against 4.2 per cent a year earlier (RBA). A market like this does not hand out pay rises for tenure.

Movers get about nine points more

The e61 Institute used the Tax Office’s Single Touch Payroll data — every pay run for nearly every employee in the country — to compare people who switched jobs with people who stayed. Switchers’ pay rises were about nine percentage points higher on average. Fifty-five per cent of job changes came with a pay gain, and among those who moved to a better-paid job the median gain was 70 per cent (that figure includes people moving from part-time to full-time hours, so treat it as an upper bound). Capital-city workers gained more than regional workers, about 10 points against 7. The gap widened, not narrowed, once pandemic-era job-retention policies ended.

Why moving pays: the anchor

Anchoring is the tendency to lean too heavily on the first number in a negotiation. Inside your current employer that number is your current salary: every review starts from it, and every increase is a percentage of it. A new employer starts from the market rate for the role and the value you can demonstrate. That is the whole reason the job-hopper premium exists.

The catch: higher earners often move for less

The same payroll data shows the premium is not evenly shared. Younger and below-median earners move up. Workers on above-median pay, on average, move to a lower-paid job — often for lifestyle, hours or a role they want more than the money. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as it is a decision rather than an accident. If the goal is the money, a move has to be planned like one:

• Know your market rate before anyone asks. Salary surveys, recruiters and job ads with bands — not your current payslip.
• Make the case on paper. A resume and LinkedIn profile built around outcomes you delivered, because that is what a new employer pays for.
• Treat the interview as a negotiation that starts early. Every answer either supports the number you want or undercuts it.
• Keep your current salary to yourself where you can. It is the anchor you are trying to escape. Our guide to executive salary negotiation covers how to handle the question.

Job hopping in the executive market

At executive level the arithmetic changes, and so does the friction. Boards are still hiring from outside, but they are choosier about who. In the March quarter of 2026, 45 per cent of ASX 200 chief executive appointments went to external candidates, well above the global figure of 31 per cent, and seven ASX 200 chief executives departed in the quarter (Russell Reynolds Associates, Global CEO Turnover Index, 18 May 2026). At the same time boards are paying for proven experience: 26 per cent of incoming CEOs globally had already run a listed company, up from 17 per cent a year earlier, and the average tenure of departing CEOs stretched to ten years. For anyone weighing a senior move, that cuts both ways. External appointments remain common in Australia, but the candidate who wins is increasingly the one whose record de-risks the appointment, not the one with the most interesting story.

The second difference is contractual. The draft Competition and Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Banning Unfair Non-Competes) Bill 2026, released for consultation on 7 September 2026, would ban non-compete clauses for employees whose base pay sits below the high income threshold — $190,100 from 1 July 2026 — but not above it. Executives stay restrainable, and employment lawyers are already advising employers to lean on longer notice periods and gardening leave for senior roles in place of the restraints they are losing further down (Baker McKenzie, 9 September 2026). Add unvested long-term incentives and a three- or six-month notice period, and a senior move can cost real money before it earns any. So read your own contract before you talk to anyone, put a number on what you would forfeit in unvested equity and bonus, and treat a buy-out as part of the negotiation rather than a favour. A serious employer will usually consider one, but only for a candidate who has asked for it and can show what it is worth.

Third, the executive market does not run on job advertisements. A large share of senior roles is filled through search firms, board networks and direct approaches, which means the first screen is the resume a search partner reads and the LinkedIn profile a researcher finds before it. A move at this level is less a job hop than a negotiated transfer of a track record, and it is won on evidence: the P&L you carried, what changed on your watch, and the referees who will say so. That is where a deliberately built executive resume and interview practice against a panel earn their keep. We have written separately on how executive recruiters evaluate resumes.

How to handle “you’ve moved around a lot”

Job hopping is more accepted than it was a decade ago, and internal promotions are often harder to win than an external hire: promoting one person disappoints the five who missed out, while a new appointment arrives with a clean story. Still, expect the question. Answer it with the reason for each move and what you delivered in each role. A clear account of why you moved turns “job hopper” into “someone who knows what they want”, and it usually opens a useful conversation about the culture, expectations and manager you would be walking into.

When staying is right

A move is the wrong tool if you are eighteen months from a promotion you will actually get, if the new employer’s pay is high because the role is unstable, or if the extra money is compensation for something you will hate. Compare the whole package — base, bonus, super, leave, flexibility — not the headline figure.

Key takeaways

• Only 7.2 per cent of Australians changed employer in the year to February 2026, and most jobs got a rise under 4 per cent.
• Job switchers’ pay rises run about nine percentage points ahead of stayers’, and 55 per cent of switches bring a pay gain.
• Above-median earners often move for less. The premium goes to people who move with a clear market rate and a strong case.
• Your current salary is the anchor. A new employer is the only party not tied to it.
• At executive level the money is in the package and the friction is in the contract: 45 per cent of ASX 200 CEO appointments still go to outsiders, but non-competes, notice periods and unvested incentives stay with you above the $190,100 threshold.

Weighing up a move?

Book a free Package Fit Call and we will tell you straight which of our services would make the difference for your situation: an executive resume that makes the case for the number you want, or interview coaching with two practitioners in the room so the hard questions have been asked before the real thing.