1) Role, apologies for the confusion.
2) The “why” is largely subjective but what is generally accepted is that males are more comfortable negotiating for more money where females generally take what is on offer. This is obviously irrelevant for many roles on enterprise agreements but is the case broadly for those that aren’t.
I've heard this a lot, I haven't really seen anything substantial on it I must say. I feel that what Carringbush2010 has written is what's required for proper analysis, it's not like people just get given big salaries, there are reasons for it, I think even he can see that his role should get paid less than the sparkies etc.
Without knowing the details of what they do the sparkies take a bit more physical risk and exertion in their roles, maybe there's more overtime, there's a lot of reasons.
I've said it before but looking at the gender pay gap stat and just assuming sexism is dumb. It's as dumb as looking at crime statistics by race and assuming people of colour are inherently bad.