"We've all gone": Why Jackie O stormed off set
Jackie O Henderson has marched out of KIIS FM in the middle of The Kyle and Jackie O show, after finding out that the station has the highest gender pay gap disparity across Australian radio.
“Southern Cross Austereo has a disgraceful 5.9% pay gap. At Nova and Smooth FM it is even worse, six per cent." Kyle Sandilands told listeners on Tuesday.
"But unfortunately, the number one spot is at KIIS FM, – at the top of the tree with a 12% pay gap disparity.”
Sandilands, who famously fought for Henderson to secure equal pay on their radio program, then brought on one of the show’s producers Pete Deppeler and another female KIIS FM producer, who revealed she was only being paid half of what Deppeler was.
“Are you freaking joking? Why is Peter getting that much money? I’m so angry about that, it makes my blood boil,” Henderson replied.
She then left the studios with all her female colleagues.
“We’ve all gone,” she said.
"We are just here with the fellas. I don’t know whether I am enjoying this, bring the girls back!” Sandilands told listeners.
On Tuesday, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency published the gender pay gap for more than 5,000 Australian companies.
This was done after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ordered the information to be made public for the first time ever, so the data can be compared within and across industries.
The new data revealed that the national gap for total remuneration sits at 19 per cent and the median Australian female worker is taking home $18,461 less than their male counterpart.
Despite a few criticisms on Albanese's decision to publicise this data, Workplace Minister Tony Burke has said that releasing this data is effective.
“People on this side know that releasing that sort of data is effective and you will only find in the other side of politics anyone arguing that it is useless,‘’ he said.
“The days of secretly paying women less than men are now over.”
Images: Kyle and Jacki O Show