Minimum W-League wages have risen in recent years, from $10,000 in 2017/18 to $12,287 last season, with a $16,344 pay packet guaranteed next season for the 14-week league.

A complex structure of payments for national team duty means the most senior Matildas are earning around $130,000 per year.

Sam Kerr, with the benefit of a marquee deal with Perth Glory and a close-to-maximum payment for Chicago Red Stars, is earning somewhere in the ballpark of $500,000 this year.

Others below the superstar status still rely on second jobs to make ends meet.

Midfielder Katrina Gorry, who like many others have struggled to maximise earnings while injured, says she likes to find additional work.

"I've always had a job during the season if I wasn't overseas," she revealed. "It was definitely an income thing (and) to have a different pathway in case something did happen.

"I worked at a high school close to my house two years ago, doing admin and teacher aide stuff.

"It's a nice way to talk to different people, it's a nice getaway from football to talk to people that don't live in the football world."

Professional Footballers Australia also administers a grant program for players eager to start on an educational pathway alongside playing commitments.

Two Matildas - Tameka Yallop and Elise Kellond-Knight - are doing internships with sponsor Seven Consulting to prepare for a world of work.

"I was a pharmacy assistant on the Gold Coast until 2015," long-serving midfielder Kellond-Knight said. "I finished my bachelor's (degree) but just didn't really love it so it was the fallback.

"If my game didn't get to where it is now, I probably would be still there. But my internship with Seven Consulting, that's really interesting."

Other Matildas have taken on more physical roles in their more recent jobs. Emily Gielnik had a gym and a personal training business in Brisbane.

She said she was "operating out of a family member's garage until the council shut my PT down", while she closed her gym three years ago to focus on football.

Chloe Logarzo, heartbroken to miss out on the 2015 World Cup squad, walked away from the game.

"I got a normal job. I worked as a landscaper, six days a week from five to five," she said.

In a curious way, that job led her back to football.

"I worked as much as I could to save money. Full labour, and then I went and travelled for two months. I backpacked in five different countries, like every normal kid does," she said.

"At that time the girls were playing the World Cup, I was sitting in a pub in Croatia watching them do really well.

"By the end of that time, I was finished backpacking and I realised I let a massive opportunity slip by and I couldn't ever do it again."