Sue worked hard in her career, but had thrown it in by the time she went on Survivor. Photo / Supplied
Sue worked hard in her career, but had thrown it in by the time she went on Survivor. Photo / Supplied
Sue Clarke worked on the front line of Australian Customs for 27 years. She interviewed illegal immigrants and became an intelligence analyst.
But the former Australian Survivor contestant threw it all in because she was absolutely sick of the injustice of her salary, reports news.com.au.
Ms Clarke, now60, told news.com.au at the beginning of her career people started out on 'band one' then worked their way up to a more lucrative position in 'band three.'
"But then it was opened up so that you didn't have to have customs training, it became equal opportunity and equal pay. So anyone could go for a customs position. You could get someone who had just finished a uni degree and come in as a band three straight up, while people like me had spent years working their guts out to get the experience," Ms Clarke said.
While she acknowledged some of the people coming in had qualifications, she argued that in a role such as a front-line customs officer, experience should be counted for a lot more than a piece of paper.
"In a customs job, experience means everything as you can't make those common sense decisions from a text book. So there was a lot of animosity with new people coming in and, after six months many were looking to get to the next level. There was no sense of starting on the ground floor and working your way up. Some of these fresh graduates were saying, 'I want the boss's chair."
Sue even had experience driving a tank in her customs gig. But she was getting paid at the same rate as people with zero front line experience. Photo / Supplied
Ms Clarke retired at age 55 (with a pension for life) and became a personal trainer. Then she went on Australian Survivor, and did quite well, staying on the island for 41 days. These days the mother of six (and grandmother of 17) works as a marriage celebrant.
"It doesn't matter what occupation you're in, if you have fresh uni graduates coming in on the same level as highly-experienced people who've worked their way up to the top, it's just not fair," Clarke said.
Business expert Ian Whitworth told news.com.au this phenomena — 'The Experience Pay Gap' — is becoming more common.
"It's mostly due to the whole 'casualisation' of work. A full-time worker, on realising that a casual worker earns more than he does, needs to realise that, as a full-timer, he might have sick leave and holiday benefits that the casual might not have," Mr Whitworth said.
"If you're experiencing both pay gap and also age discrimination and you work for a small company it's easier to deal with because they don't have rigid rules and systems. You're more likely to be able to talk to your manager and say, 'It's not reasonable that my colleague is being paid more than me when I am more experienced' and for them to do something about it."
"But, big companies might just direct you to head office which might be overseas, or they'll simply tell you there's nothing they can do."
Mark*, 45, had been retrenched from his job at an IT company and has recently started work for a rival business. He was put on a salary that was considerably less than what he'd been earning at his previous job.
Sue feels that plenty of people are facing a pay injustice, as experience isn't acknowledged enough in many industries. Photo / Supplied
"But I was so relieved to get a good position after being made redundant that I just accepted it. However, I was horrified to learn that some of the less experienced workers were on higher salaries than I was," Mark said.
"I made an appointment with HR to discuss the matter as I felt it was very unfair that even though I'm in a senior position, I'm on the same salary as two of the people I'm managing. But I was fobbed off and now I'm looking for work elsewhere. I really feel undervalued, like all my years of experience accounted for nothing."
A survey by Pureprofile of 1005 employees found while 51 per cent reported being satisfied their pay reflects their experience, 43 per cent believe they're paid below their experience level. Just six per cent feel they're overpaid for their experience level.
The age range most satisfied with their level of pay based against their experience is the 45-49 years old, with 47 per cent claiming they feel this is balanced.
The least satisfied is the age range directly before this, those aged between 40-44, with 48 per cent claiming their experience supersedes their pay packet.
Mr Whitworth advises people to act on these issues when they're in their late 30s.
"Look around you at the people ten years older than you and see what's happening. Are they being paid the same or less than you while they have more experience? Are they already on their way out?" Whitworth said.
"You need to think about ensuring you're employable in the future and that you're paid what you're worth."
