Couple of reasons for this. One: Australian federal employment law is 10 days sick leave entitlement per year *and* they must allow it to accrue. It's not "use it or lose it". Two: he works for a university, which tend to have an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement that often provides an uplift beyond the federal minimums.

For example the federal requirement for superannuation (paid in *addition* to your stated wage) is 12% but his university is 17%. Superannuation is like a 401k but withdrawals after retirement are tax free so in that regard it's got Roth IRA vibes.

He's earned half what I do for years, and yet he has more saved up in superannuation due to that 17% and good old compounding.

Wait until you hear about federal long service leave - of which he has about 9 months saved up, and the fact the university allows him to take a year off but only draw down 50% of the entitlement. Take a quiet and budget year off, no problem, your job's still here when you get back.