SYDNEY, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Australians spend 8.3 billion Australian dollars (6.24 billion U.S. dollars) on buying lunch at work, according to a new report released on Friday.
The report, conducted by ING Direct and Galaxy, asked 1,000 Australians how much they spent on lunch while at work, and discovered that the total came to 1,548 dollars per year.
This, when factoring in the workplace participation figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), provided the 8.3 billion Australian dollars a year total.
But this was not the only major cost faced by workers, with transport coming in at 179 Australian dollars per month, and all total expenses costing the average employee 591 Australian dollars per month.
According to the ABS, the average yearly wage is 78,832 Australian dollars per year, and when factoring in taxes, superannuation, and other government deductions, this translates to a figure of 60,087 Australian dollars per year, or 5,007.25 Australian dollars per month.
This means that the average Australian spends 11 percent of their take home pay in going to work, and being there, in the first place.
David Breen, a spokesperson for ING Direct told News Ltd on Friday, the results of the study were not surprising at all.
"It all adds up very quickly, when you're on leave you really notice how much you normally spend on lunch, transport, dry cleaning and other costs," Breen said.
"These habits you form have quite a financial impact when you look at it over an annual basis."
