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These are Australia’s highest paid industries

Vocational degrees such are nursing give young people less mobility. Photo: Getty

Vocational degrees such are nursing give young people less mobility. Photo: Getty

Data obtained by The New Daily reveals the importance of carefully selecting the industry in which you work.

Released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), the numbers show those working in finance and insurance services are our highest paid, while retail workers are often at the other end of the scale.

Libby Lyons, director of the WGEA, said higher-paid industries often operated with large bonuses and individual salary arrangements, instead of award rates.

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The numbers, collected from all private Australian companies with more than 100 employees, also reveal a bigger gender pay gap in higher-paid industries.

“Sixty per cent of finance employees are women, but they’re working in lower-paid roles,” explained Ms Lyons.

Pay affects young people’s decisions

Vocational degrees such are nursing give young people less mobility. Photo: Getty

Vocational degrees such are nursing give young people less mobility. Photo: Getty

Professor Phil Lewis, Director of the Centre for Labour Market Research at the University of Canberra, said the numbers were likely to affect young Australians’ future work plans.

“Pay is quite important and there are considerable gaps,” he said.

Professor Lewis said students didn’t necessarily need to choose their future industry at university.

“People with commerce degrees, for example, can work in so many industries these days,” he said.

“Although there are, of course, still degrees, such as nursing, that are more limiting.”

Professor Lewis said it was important for young Australians to not only consider an industry’s average pay.

“It’s not as straightforward as saying everyone in engineering gets highly paid,” he said.

“It’s not true for everyone working in lower positions.”

How to maximise pay in your industry

Professor Lewis said workers could maximise their pay without changing industries.

“Our market is very flexible and particularly highly educated people are able to choose where they work,” he said.

Professor Lewis said those in managerial or clerical positions were often able to move from the private to public sector in order to maximise their earnings.

However, he said job mobility depended largely on one factor.

“Your employability, your salary and even wellbeing at work is determined by your education.”

Professor Lewis also argued the value of honing skills in a niche area.

“Young accountants don’t tend to earn that much, but the ones who stay and master a niche like taxation do very well indeed,” he said.

“You can definitely use your longevity to your advantage, as employers are willing to pay a premium for it.”

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