Gender pay gap: Australia’s most sexist jobs revealed

These are the occupations with the biggest gender pay gaps — where men and women can both work full time hours but earn vastly different pay packets.

Michelle Dixon, CEO of Maddocks, wants to reduce the pay gap in the legal profession. Picture: David Caird

Australia’s most sexist jobs have been revealed, with some men pocketing as much as $619 more than the women working in the same roles alongside them.

News Corp analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data found men out-earned women in 64 of 77 represented occupational groups, even after part-timers and overtime earnings were removed from the equation.

Legal professionals had the largest gender gap, with men and women averaging $2504 and $1885 a week, respectively.

A weekly $619 difference equated to about $32,200 over the course of a year.

Other significant pay gaps were recorded for financial brokers and dealers and investment advisers ($581 in favour of men), information and organisation professionals, such as policy and business advisers ($438) and building and engineering technicians ($395).

Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins. Picture Kym Smith

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said progress in reducing the gender pay gap was happening too slowly.

“A large pay gap in the legal sector is perplexing given many of the common excuses for gender inequality don’t apply,” she said.

“Being a lawyer does not require physical strength and can be performed remotely and flexibly.

“Women have been studying law for a long time and more recently have constituted more than 50 per cent of law graduates, and they often perform better than their male counterparts.

“Yet women’s success in these respects has not converted into equality at the most senior levels of the profession.”

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Maddocks chief executive Michelle Dixon said she had never personally felt disadvantaged by her gender but acknowledged the pay gap was a genuine issue that should not be explained away.

“I haven’t ever felt that way but have been lucky enough to grow up in a good firm, and I was also a litigation lawyer so not to be trifled with,” she said.

“I was very ready to argue my own case.”

“I get cranky when people say (the gender pay gap) is just a factor of time because we’ve had time so it’s clearly something more.”

She said lawyers at the same level were typically paid equally, irrespective of gender, but the issue was the rate of promotion.

“One of the reasons I was very keen to become CEO was that these changes really need to be driven from the top and you can achieve a lot more as CEO in terms of bringing about that change,” she said.

Michelle Dixon, CEO of Maddocks, said the pay gap could not be explained away. Picture: David Caird

Women out-earned men in just 12 occupational groups and pay gaps were smaller.

The largest discrepancy was among farmers and farm managers, where men averaged $1822 a week and women averaged $2202 — a difference of $380 a week.

Salaries also favoured women in the textile, clothing and footwear trades ($376 gap) and health therapy professions ($270).

The Adecco Group Australia chief executive Rafael Moyano said industries dominated by one gender typically favoured that gender when it came to pay.

“Unconscious bias means those in the minority can find it more difficult to negotiate pay rises and can be driven to leave the industries before accumulating more experience,” he said.

“For instance, men get paid more in the male-dominated building and technician space, while women on average earn more in the female-dominated health therapy professional space.”

Male farmers were out-earned by women, who made on average $380 more a week. Picture: iStock

Elam Cabling Group managing director Lyn Evans, with decades of experience in the telecommunications sector as worker and employer, said she did not believe the sector’s pay gap was a result of inequality.

The average man might earn $321 a week more than the average woman but she maintained any two workers on the same job and with the same qualification would earn the same money, regardless of gender.

“(Employers) have to pay people by their classification but there is a big pool of men with exceptional niche expertise jobs that drag up their average,” she said.

“A lot of high-paying jobs are also in harsh environments (such as the mines) and traditionally you’ve got a much higher percentage of men (in those roles) than you do women.”

She said women who took time off work to raise children might also fall behind their male counterparts as they were not spending that time working their way up the pay scale.

Lyn Evans, managing director of Elam Cabling Group, said employers paid equally-qualified workers the same rate. Picture: Monique Harmer.

Southern Cross Electrical Engineering electrician Leena Grootjans was surprised the pay gap existed for electricians (also $321 in favour of men).

“Every job I have worked on where I have been licensed the same as the person next to me and had the same tickets, I have never been paid any differently,” Ms Grootjans said.

“I feel like we are very, very lucky in this industry.

“A lot of women in other industries don’t have the same opportunities and have to take a bigger pay gap or make a much bigger hurdle to get there.”

Workplace Gender Equality Agency engagement executive manager Kate Lee said more employers were taking the issue seriously, by analysing their organisation’s pay gap and putting strategies in place to close it.

“It’s smaller in workplaces with more regulated pay structures, so with an award or agreement … rather than open negotiation,” she said.

“Organisations that increase flexibility for both men and women help close gender pay gaps.”

Electricians Teagan Connolly, Leena Grootjans and Elle McMahon have not felt disadvantaged by their gender. Picture: Monique Harmer.

When comparing all workers and all earnings, including part-timers and over time, the ABS data revealed even larger pay gaps between the genders as women were more likely to reduce their hours when a child was born.

The most significant pay gap was recorded in chemical and materials engineering, where men earned on average $2256 a week more than women.

Other men that were better off included counsellors ($587 gap), carpenters and joiners ($372), secondary school teachers ($251), chefs ($243), police officers ($213), registered nurses ($128) and software and applications programmers ($157).

The occupation closest to parity was contact centre and customer service manager, for which women were better off by 70 cents a week.

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