The financial and insurance services sector remains the worst offender when it comes to gender pay inequalities, latest figures from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s scorecard show.

Women in full-time roles are getting about $48,884 less in total remuneration on average than their male counterparts in the last financial year.

That translates to a 30.3% pay gap, well above 21.3% nationally with men taking home about $25,717 more annually.

On a base salary basis, the financial and insurance services sector pays female employees $27,353 less.

The sector has topped the rankings since 2013/14, the year the agency started keeping track of wage inequalities.

But progress has been made by the sector to narrow the divide, although the gap is still vast: it has closed 5.8 points from 36.1% in 2013/14.

The improvements mirror the progress achieved at the national level with the gap registering its biggest single annual drop of 1.1% to 21.3%.

However there is no room for complacency, the agency cautions, as the odds are still stacked against women employees in every sector, including insurance.

“Although the gender pay gap has narrowed every year, progress is too slow,” Director Libby Lyons said. “Access to parental leave has not improved, with the provision of paid primary carer’s leave actually going backwards.

“The glass walls persist in industry segregation, which remains deeply entrenched in Australia. The glass ceiling is still a barrier for women at the CEO and board levels.

“We now need even more employers to take action so that we can accelerate the momentum for gender equality in Australian workplaces.”

The proportion of women in CEO or head of business roles, increased to 17.1% from 16.5% in 2016/17 and 1.4 points from five years ago.

At the management level, the financial and insurance services sector placed sixth with a 40.7% female representation rate. The health care and social assistance sector scored best on 70.2%.

The agency’s scorecard covers over 40% of employees with women making up 50.1% of the dataset.