In Brief

Issue 
Women football players in Australia are paid much less than their male counterparts.

Matildas paid much less than Socceroos

The Matildas will be paid less in match fees if they win the women's World Cup final than the Socceroos get for a single group-stage game.

Each Matilda was paid $500 a game in the lead up to the World Cup. Their male counterparts received $7500 for doing the same thing.

If the Matildas win the final in Canada, they will earn a total of $5600 in match fees, while each Socceroo pocketed $103,148 after they won the Asian Cup earlier this year.

If the Matildas lose their World Cup final, they will leave Canada with just $2850. If the Socceroos had lost the Asian Cup at the same stage, they would each have been paid $66,600.

Australian inequality rising

Australia’s rich are getting richer, and the gap is widening.

Australians in the top 20% of incomes receive five times as much as those in the bottom 20%. A person in the top 20% has 70 times as much accumulated wealth as a person in the bottom 20%.

The wealth of the top 20% increased by 28% from 2004 to 2012, while the wealth of the bottom increased by just 3%. The top 10% owns 45% of wealth, while the bottom owns 5.1%.

This means Australia has income inequality higher than the OECD average, but slightly lower wealth inequality.

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