Women in these 80 occupations earn more than men, on average

Updated April 27, 2018 09:46:47

Photo: Women surfers earn more than men, on average, according to new figures. (ABC News: Elise Kinsella)

Map: Australia

Women surfers earn more than men — making them one of just 80 occupations where that happens, Australia's latest tax statistics show.

Fast food cooks, receptionists, furniture removalists, movie projectionists and goat farmers are also among the few occupations where women had higher taxable incomes than men.

On the flip side, men out-earn women in more than 1,000 different occupations: medical specialists see the largest pay gap.

As with all data, it's worth keeping in mind the fine print:

• The data covers the 2015-16 financial year and was released by the Australian Tax Office today.
• These figures look at the earnings of 16 million Australians, based on what they declare on their tax returns, including what job they work in.
• The data does not take into account whether someone is working part-time or full-time; therefore if more women than men in a given occupation work part-time, for example, that affects the averages.

Doctors and sportspeople have biggest gender gap

The biggest discrepancy between male and female taxable incomes was for doctors, particularly eye specialists and ear, nose and throat specialists, where men's taxable incomes were more than $300,000 higher than women, on average.

Male cricketers had taxable incomes $270,000 higher than women cricketers.

There can be multiple different explanations for the various earnings differences. For example:

• There are 215 men who declare making their living as cricketers, and many of these likely play at state and lower levels of the game, pulling down the average. By comparison, there are only 47 women in that occupation group, meaning a higher proportion of those are likely to be in the national side and lifting their average closer to men.
• These figures also represent "taxable income", which is a person's income after all tax deductions have been removed from their total income. Those deductions can include net rent losses or gains, deductions for specific occupations and gifts and donations. The total income of different occupation groups could look quite different.

Overall, surgeons had the highest taxable incomes, at $393,467, followed by anaesthetists, internal medicine specialists and financial dealers.

Women futures traders and surfers turn the tables

The greatest difference in female versus male average taxable income was for an occupation category the ATO labelled "state governors", but which is defined more broadly as "legislators not classified under other occupations", and which includes Aboriginal Community Council Members and Aboriginal Land Councillors.

Six women and 19 men listed that category as their occupation, with the women having taxable incomes of $286,676 and the men $169,148.

Female futures traders had an average taxable income of $388,681 compared with $300,923.

The 22 female surfers ($68,178) had higher taxable incomes than the 81 male surfers ($40,396).

And the 18 female goat farmers ($66,127) earn more than their 22 male counterparts ($44,495).

Highest average incomes are in Sydney's eastern suburbs

Overall, the suburbs of Edgecliff, Darling Point and Point Piper (making up the 2027 postcode) in Sydney's east had the highest average taxable income, followed by Hawksburn and Toorak in Melbourne (3142 postcode).

There was little change in the top average taxable incomes by postcode or occupation compared with the 2014-15 tax statistics.

Full list: All 80 occupations where women have higher taxable incomes

Topics: tax, australia

First posted April 27, 2018 04:44:54