Gender pay gap widest in financial services

The gender pay gap in the financial services industry is the widest out of 19 industries surveyed by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency for its latest report on female workforce participation.

The financial services industry also scores poorly in terms of the number of women in senior executive roles.

According to the WGEA, the gender pay gap (the difference between average male full-time base remuneration and average female full-time base remuneration) is 19.9 per cent across all industries. In other words, women earn 19.9 per cent less than men.

When total remuneration is taken into account (adding bonus and other discretionary payments, superannuation and allowances to base remuneration), the gap is 24.7 per cent.

In the financial services industry the base remuneration gap is 28.4 per cent and the total remuneration gap is 36.1 per cent.

The report is based on compulsory reporting by all non-public sector employers with 100 or more employees and is, according to the WGEA, "the most comprehensive picture of gender equality in workplaces Australia has ever seen."

WGEA director Helen Conway said the pay gap reflected differences in payment rates for men and women doing the same work and, more significantly, the fact that more men were in senior roles.

Among the 225 financial institutions providing data for the survey, women make up 56.1 per cent of the workforce.

Women occupy 4.4 per cent of chief executive positions in financial services, compared with 17.3 per cent for all industries. They occupy 24.2 per cent of key management positions, compared with 26.1 per cent for all industries.

Women occupy 27.4 per cent of "other executive/general manager" positions in financial services, compared with 27.8 per cent for all industries.

When former Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly was asked a couple of weeks ago why Westpac had been successful in increasing the proportion of women in middle management positions but less successful at the senior management level, she said it was a work in progress.

Conway said this was fair comment. "It does take time but you can't just cross your fingers and hope you get there. We applaud targets but they must be practical and achievable.

"You also need to dismantle attitudes to things like flexible working arrangements," Conway said.

The financial services industry scored well on this measure, with 18.7 per cent of companies in the industry having a flexibility strategy, compared with 13.6 per cent for all industries.