Stacey Dash arrives at the "American Sniper" New York Premiere at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Centre on December 15, 2014 in New York City. Photo: Gary Gershoff/WireImage. Source: Getty Images

In Australia, the gender pay gap is at a record high of 18.8 per cent, according to the most recent ABS figures. Australian men now earn almost $300 more per week than women, based on the average weekly earnings for full-time workers.

So when Clueless actress Stacey Dash went on US television and said women are using the pay gap as an “excuse”, people were pissed.

“It’s an excuse. Stop making excuses. If there are opportunities, seize them. And be prepared for them. And be the best, if that’s what it takes. If you have to be extraordinary, be extraordinary,” she told a bemused Meredith Vieira on The Meredith Vieira Show.

Vieria, a veteran reporter and TV host, tried to get Dash to understand the facts. She explains that American women make 70 cents to the dollar and that at the rate things are going, her 22-year-old daughter won’t be paid the same as her male colleagues until she’s in her 60s.

The audience applauded Vieira as Dash said, “I don’t know if that’s true.” Veiria replied: “That’s true, that’s documented.”

Stacey Dash (right) with her Clueless co-stars Alicia Silverstone and Brittany Murphy, who died in 2009. Source: Supplied

“I know that the numbers are true, but I feel like your daughter will be able to make as much money as she wants in her life. Just like you are. I mean, look at you,” Dash said.

The 61-year-old explained it was a long and hard road to success ...“For many years, I was not getting paid the same as the guys.”

“And you think it’s because you’re a woman?” Dash asked. “I think that’s a lot to do with it,” Vieira replied.

“I guess I won’t put my fate into anything other than my own action and taking my destiny in my hands. I will not play victim to anything,” Dash insisted.

“I’m not a victim,” Vieira said. “I’m pissed off. I don’t wanna be a victim.”

“If you want to be pissed off about it, then be pissed off about it and work harder for it,” the 48-year-old Fox News ‘cultural commentator’ said. “But I don’t think us, you know, complaining about it, because there was a law passed that we get paid equal pay.”

“Except we don’t,” Vieira insisted. “We don’t! We don’t!”

Watch the full clip here: