Sex split on six-figure roles
Women are still less likely than men to apply for six-figure salary roles, according to an analysis of more than 71,000 vacancies on Trade Me.
Jeremy Wade, head of Trade Me Jobs, says there has been little development in the gender differences for applications for three consecutive years.
“After looking at applications between July and September, we found applications for six-figure salary roles were still largely dominated by men,” he say. “For roles with a salary of $100,000 or more, just 37 per cent of applications were from females.”
Wade says at the other end of the spectrum, the $40,000-$60,000 salary band is much more even with women making up 52 per cent of applications.
“There are a couple of schools of thought around why we see more men applying for higher-paying roles. We know from our data that traditionally female-dominated sectors, such as nursing and teaching, are paid less than male-dominated professions like engineering or IT. We see nursing has an average salary of $57,991 and teachers $57,641, while engineers earn $76,537 and IT professionals $111,512.
“Another theory revolves around confidence. The thinking is men are more likely to apply for a role even if they only meet 50 per cent of the criteria in the job description, while women typically want to be sure they can meet all requirements before they’ll apply. This means men land more of these roles.
“We need to have more conversations about what might be stopping women from getting into high-paying industries and how to change this. Diversity increases productivity in the workplace and the quality of decision-making, so it’s important for all of us to address this.”
Wade says in sectors such as IT, almost three-quarters of applications were from men. “When we look at executive and general management it’s a similar story, with men still making 63 per cent of applications. In science and technology, applications were evenly split with females making up exactly half.”
He adds females dominate applications in office and administration, and education, making up 72 per cent in both sectors. “There are some signs traditional gender stereotypes are breaking down with over 64 per cent of applications for accounting roles in the last quarter from women. That’s up from 56 per cent back in 2016.”
Wade's report is good news for all job hunters with a 0.4 per cent increase in listings nationwide, while “average pay also increased 0.3 per cent on last year to $60,993, which is promising for job hunters.”
All regions saw increases in listings on this time last year, except Canterbury – down 7.9 per cent, Marlborough – down 10.7 per cent and Auckland – down 3.5 per cent.
“Some regions have seen strong job growth recently with vacancies in Gisborne climbing 16 per cent on last year and Taranaki up 15 per cent, followed by an 11 per cent boost in Southland and a 10 per cent increase in Hawke’s Bay.”
