The chair of the Hunter Workers women's committee says the gender pay gap is having a long-term material effect on women's lives.
The Newcastle Herald reported yesterday that some of the Hunter's biggest private employers recorded gender pay gaps above 30 per cent in a landmark report on the difference in men's and women's pay packets.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency national report shows the median male annual remuneration is 19 per cent, or $18,461, higher than for women and traditionally male-dominated industries have better pay and bigger pay gaps.
Hunter Workers women's committee chair Teresa Hetherington said the gender pay gap had a lasting impact on women, especially if they were single over the age of 50.
"It's not just your wage; it's your entitlements and the gaps in your employment that really have a strong effect on the overall outcome as we get older," she said.
"We need to change this mindset. We've been through generation after generation of women propping men up.
"We now are in a world where women have to work to keep the family financially viable. This is an essential wage that we're earning and we need it."
The Herald reported last year that Census figures showed Hunter women were paid far less than men and did much more unpaid housework and caring.
Ms Hetherington said women were expected to pause their employment to look after children or sick relatives.
"It takes a toll on their earning capacity, their superannuation, and we generally end up working poor ourselves," she said.
"It's widely known that women over the age of 50 or going through divorce are more likely than not to lose their homes, and they find it substantially harder to find accommodation.
"Women should be able to lead a dignified existence, not at the behest of someone else."
Ms Hetherington, who works in aged care, said even in her sector men had more opportunity for career advancement.
"Generally speaking, because men are more able to drop and run if there's an emergency, they are prepared to take on those roles more than women are," she said.
The male-dominated construction industry had the highest gender pay gap at almost 32 per cent while the difference between male and female pay in the health and social assistance sector was 6.1 per cent.
Transport (20.4 per cent), manufacturing (18.1 per cent) and mining (15.1 per cent) had much wider pay gaps than education (5.2 per cent), administrative and support services (5.5 per cent) and accommodation and food services (1.9 per cent).
The WGEA report found pay gaps in favour of men in all industries, and even across all female-dominated sectors the median income was 11.6 per cent higher for men than women.
Hunter Workers secretary Leigh Shears said the report challenged traditional views of work and society.
"What it goes to is how society values occupations," he said.
"You see in male-dominated industries the pay is fairly high and those gaps are significant.
"You just have a look at the health sector, predominantly women. It's a challenge for us all, really."
Some large Hunter companies in sectors not necessarily regarded as male-dominated still had significant pay gaps, including Newcastle Greater Mutual Group (34.5 per cent), Hunter Imaging Group (37.3 per cent) and NIB (30.1 per cent).
Newcastle Greater reported that 70 per cent of its workforce was female, yet women occupied 43 per cent of jobs in the highest pay category and 87 per cent of positions in the lowest category.
Men filled 82 per cent of the bank's key managerial positions.
At University of Newcastle, where the pay gap was 3.2 per cent, 57 per cent of key management personnel were men despite women filling 64 per cent of the total workforce.
Professor Roberta Ryan, the director of the university's Institute for Regional Futures, said women still faced challenges being paid the same as men in comparable roles.
"Even in well paid professional roles, we know there's quite a lot of anecdotal evidence that suggests women doing the same jobs, that you can quantify and categorise, are earning less than their male counterparts," she said.
Professor Ryan said women faced unconscious bias and discrimination in the workplace.
"It's also difficult for women to catch up," she said.
"They might be at a lower starting point because they've had time out of work, then the jumps become quite big and it can be difficult to negotiate significant increases.
"Women can keep falling behind in those roles.
"Women are more likely to work part-time, which shouldn't impact on women's promotional opportunities or salary levels, but it seems to.
"It's quite embedded this."
Every non-government organisation with at least 100 staff must now disclose publicly the difference in men's and women's pay packets under the Workplace Gender Equality Act.
