Kate Langbroek reveals she was paid 40 per cent less than radio co-host Dave Hughes

Kate Langbroek says she is estranged from former co-host Dave Hughes, with their relationship souring when she realised a whopping pay gap.

Kate Langbroek has revealed she earned 40 per cent less than her radio co-host Dave Hughes, further claiming talking about their pay gap led to the end of their working relationship.

Langbroek, 57, was guest hosting Channel 10’s The Project Thursday night when the discussion of gender pay parity came up.

“Hughesy and I did a radio show together for eighteen years and had never ever discussed what we got paid,” she explained.

Dave Hughes and Kate didn’t speak about money for years.

Dave Hughes and Kate Langbroek were a radio power couple. Supplied by Channel 10.

“It turned out he was getting paid 40 per cent more than I was. This was the Hughesy and Kate show that we had made together and didn’t exist without us,” she said.

“Show business is not a standard situation but we did a radio show together for 18 years. It changed our relationship when we talked about money and I then left.”

Hughes, 52, and Langbroek co-hosted the Hughesy and Kate drivetime show on KIIS FM until 2017, before jumping over to the Hit Network from 2018.

Before jumping ship to the rival station, the pair had a candid discussion on-air about discovering their pay disparity at KIIS.

“You don’t know about this,” Langbroek said on air at the time. “I found out last year that you get paid 40 per cent more than I do for doing this show.”

Hughes was audibly stunned and didn’t know what to say in response.

“I had no idea what we get paid,” he told Langbroek, “Now I feel terrible”.

“You don’t need to feel terrible,” Langbroek told Hughes. “It wasn’t your fault that you were born with two oranges in a string bag [testicles]”.

As soon as Langbroek found out about the massive pay difference in 2016, she immediately raised it with her bosses at KIIS and was said to be paid the same as Hughes for the remainder of that year.

But sources told news.com.au at the time that Hughes had already locked in his salary for 2017 with KIIS when he found out about the disparity. As a result, he offered to accept less to ensure Langbroek would be paid the same.

The pair went on to co-host their show for the Hit Network for the remainder of 2018, before Langbroek quit to spend more time with her family in 2019, when she moved to Bologna in Italy. She returned to Melbourne in 2021.

Langbroek went on to argue that because women are the ‘breeders,” they need more flexible work options and ultimately get “punished for it”.

Kate has spoken out about getting paid less. Picture: The Project

Kyle and Jackie O are a power couple that discuss money. Picture: Supplied

She did, however, save some praise for Hughes.

“Apart from my husband he was the most significant man in my life. And it has been like a marriage, and now like a divorce,” she said

Radio co-hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson used to earn different amounts but Sandilands demanded Henderson be paid the same as him.

Way back in the early 2000s, when pay parity wasn’t the loud conversation it is now, he found out his new co-host Jackie O was getting paid less than him, and it enraged him so much he offered to take a pay cut himself so they’d be paid the same.

“I went and spoke to our general manager and told her Jackie O getting paid less wasn’t right! I told her to make it even and use my money,” Sandilands said.

“She said, ‘You want to give Jackie money out of your own money?’ And I said ‘yeah!’

“Two hours later, she said I will increase Jackie O’s salary, but won’t take any off you,” Sandilands said.

According to the Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency the pay gap in Australia is 13.3 per cent. This means that for every dollar on average that men earn, women earn around 87 cents.