Mining workers now earn almost twice as much as workers in manufacturing. West Australians now average 24 per cent bigger pay packets than Victorians. And soaring mining and construction wages have widened the gender gap in earnings.

Latest figures from the Bureau of Statistics show that men working in WA now have the nation's highest pay packets, at $1936 for a full week. In 2003 they were below the national male average but since then, the average WA male wage has soared 89 per cent.

Illustration: Matt Davidson.

No such luck for blokes in the south-east. In 2003, men working in NSW were second only to those in Canberra, with an average pay packet of $1086 for a full-time week. But in the past decade, their wages rose less than any other group, up just 43 per cent to $1454.