ZONTA Mackay member Bridget Mather said she was disappointed but not surprised to still see such a huge gap between wages for men and women - although she wasn't surprised.

"We have very male-orientated industries and so of course then you have skewed it even more," she said.

"Generally in industries which are female orientated, they are much, much lower paid and lower valued."

>> "Absolutely ridiculous" that Mackay men earn more than women

Ms Mather said until people took the issue seriously and all positions were valued for what they were worth, she did not expect it to change.

"I don't quite understand why you pay a truck driver $110,000 a year but you pay an aged-care worker, which is traditionally female, less than probably $60,000," she said.

While she wished she had the answers to fix it, Ms Mather said it started with education from a young age so people stopped thinking about roles as gender-based.