Australia’s average career woman now making six-figures due to longer working hours

Australia’s average career woman is now earning a six-figure salary for the first time but the bigger increase in female pay is more a reflection of them working longer hours to pay the bills, a labour market expert says.

The national average, full-time salary stood at $106,657 at the end of November, rising to $110,542 with bonuses.

Women working full-time earned $100,209, with their average salary entering the six-figure zone including overtime and bonuses, new Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Thursday showed.

This occurred 18 months after Australia’s average, full-time salary for both men and women climbed above $100,000.

Men, by comparison, typically earned $117,213 — or 17 per cent more than women putting in the extra hours.

But when it came to ordinary pay rises, women scored a 4.1 per cent increase over the year compared with 3.6 per cent for men, coinciding with a big 15 per cent raise for aged care workers.

Since the data was taken, inflation has soared from 3.4 per cent in November to 3.8 per cent as of January.

On the surface, it appears women are in a better position to withstand the cost-of-living crisis.

But the bigger jump in female pay had more to do with women working longer hours to pay the household bills without getting extra help from the men in their lives, University of Sydney labour market researcher Professor John Buchanan told The Nightly.

“Whilst women are putting way more hours into the labour market, men are not putting a commensurate amount of hours into the household,” Professor Buchanan said.

“It’s still going on and men’s labour force participation is dropping and this is kind of from a big picture perspective.

“This is where I’m sympathetic: women are carrying a huge burden.”

In January alone, the number of hours worked in all jobs increased by 11 million, for an annual increase of 32 million extra hours at work.

Full-time employment last month also increased by 50,500 in a tight labour market.

The pay gap between the sexes has narrowed, following a 15 per cent pay rise awarded to predominantly female aged care workers in 2023.

The increases were last year phased in for registered and enrolled nurses and aged care workers on awards with the Federal Government spending $17.7 billion to fund the Fair Work Commission’s pay increase for 400,000 workers.

But Professor Buchanan said aged care workers made up too small a portion of the overall labour market to see a broader boost in female pay.

“In aged care, yep, they’re getting more wages as well as more hours,” he said.

Male-dominated industries continued to be the highest paid with men in mining typically making $169,915 a year even before bonuses and overtime.

Women working in health care and social assistance typically made $95,384, which was marginally more than the $95,337 salary in the dwindling, male-dominated manufacturing sector.

But women working in public sector jobs did better, making $108,976, which was better than the average, male construction salary of $102,326.

Female workers are still the lowest paid, with those working full-time in hospitality typically making $72,821.

This was even less than the $77,912 figure for women in retail.

Public sector workers earned more overall, with an average salary of $115,227 compared with $104,312 in private enterprise.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics regards full-time work as a 35-hour week with its average weekly ordinary time earnings series based on a survey of what people are earning.

This is a different measure to the wage price index which measures pay increases in the same jobs.