AUSTRALIA is in the grip of an underemployment epidemic, as new research reveals that 784,000 people are struggling to find more hours to earn more pay. And the wage gulf between the sexes is growing, with pay for men rising by 5.3 per cent in the past year, and only 3.9 per cent for women. The average male worker earns $1323 a week, or $1576 if only full-time workers are counted, compared to $839 and $1243 respectively for women. The pay rise gulf lessens when only full-time workers are considered. The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures come as am ABS survey gives an indepth glimpse into a legion of underemployed workers who want more hours but can't get them. It suggests the average time spent in that position is 69 weeks, with around half of people aged over 45 most likely to suffer for longer than a year. But while younger people were less likely to spend so long underemployed, a quarter of all young people in part-time work now want more hours. Of those underemployed, 730,900 held part-time jobs in September, and 53,000 were full-timers who were doing less than 35-hours a week because there was not enough work. The problem was worse for female part-time workers, although men needed more hours than the 14 extra people generally sought. Seventy per cent of of men and about half of women wanted a full-time job. About 345,000 people were actively seeking more work, and had asked their company for more hours, searched job sites or contacted new employers in the past month. Those who met brick walls were most commonly told there was no vacancies or too many applicants for jobs. One third of men said they would move to another part of their state if they were offered a suitable job, while one in five women would be willing. Over a quarter of those men would move interstate and 14 per cent of women would be prepared to make that jump. Meanwhile, miners recorded the highest average weekly earnings, at $2381, and hotel and restaurant workers had the lowest, at $530. People in the ACT and WA earned the highest wages because of the numbers of public servants and mine workers. ACTU president Ged Kearney said the statistics showed how hard it was to break out of the cycle of insecure work. "There are almost half a million Australians who are unable to earn what they need to survive or advance because they can't get enough," she said. Yet we also have an epidemic of overwork and unpaid overtime caused by employers seeking more and more out of already overstretched workers. She said employers were often the only ones were benefited from casual jobs, allowing them to change shifts at will, and affording workers no holiday or sick pay, leaving them vulnerable.