Pakeha males inherit $10,400 income start

Women are on the short end of almost all measurements of how much people earned, according to Census statistics released yesterday.

Unsurprisingly, Pakeha males showed up in the 2001 Census as earning more than any other group of people in New Zealand.

The median annual income was $18,500, but for men the figure was $24,900, compared with $14,500 paid to women.

More than half of women earn less than $15,000 compared with one-third of men.

There were also big pay differences at the upper end of the scale.

Of the 18.6 per cent of the population who earned more than $40,000, seven out of 10 were men.

The median income of men working full-time (30-hours-plus a week) was $35,000, compared with $28,900 for women.

The median Maori income last year was $14,800.

Just 10.2 per cent earned more than $40,000.

About half (50.6 per cent) earned less than $15,000, an improvement on the 64.5 per cent who fell into that bracket in the 1991 Census.

But the Census also showed that females and Maori were closing the income gap, albeit slowly.

Nearly a quarter of Wellington incomes were in the $40,000-plus bracket, a higher proportion than in Auckland (22.7 per cent).

West Coasters, Northlanders and Gisbornites were the nation's lowest income earners, with, respectively, 51.7, 49.6 and 49.4 per cent earning less than $15,000.

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