CANBERRA, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Air traffic controllers have entered Australia's top 10 highest-paid careers, data has revealed.
According to Australian Taxation Office (ATO) data, released on Friday, air transport officials earned an average of 141,795 Australian dollars (107,074 U.S. dollars) in 2017, enough to make it the 10th best-paid career in the country.
Surgeons remained the highest-paid professionals in Australia, earning an average of 393,467 AU dollars (297,120 U.S. dollars) followed by anaesthetists at 359,056 AU dollars (271,138 U.S. dollars).
The data revealed that surgeons were better paid in Victoria and New South Wales while the opposite was true for anaesthetists.
Charles Robinson, an air traffic control trainer in Victoria, said the figure was not a surprise because very few people were capable of becoming an air traffic controller.
Airservices Australia, Robinson's employer, had 1,180 people apply for its training program in 2017 of who only 30 were accepted.
"Statistically that's less than three percent of those who apply for the role," Robinson told Fairfax Media on Friday.
"I think the flying public demand a very high level of safety, and we're very good at our jobs."
Of approximately 1,200 careers recorded by the ATO, women were paid better than men on average in fewer than 100 including receptionists and school teachers and even goat farming.
"To find professions where women earn even slightly more than men, the ATO has had to go to goat farming and beauticians," Roderick Campbell, a research director at The Australia Institute, said.
"Some of these are obviously low income professions, where minimum wages come into play and even out that inequality. It really shows the gender gap is still there."
The biggest gender pay gap was in the medical industry with eye and ear specialists where males had taxable incomes more than 300,000 AU dollars (226,5422 U.S. dollars) higher than their female counterparts.
