A survey about the gender pay gap in the financial services industry has found 72.5% of women did not think their employer is transparent about pay equality.

However, the Financial Services Institute of Australasia (Finsia) survey finds only 50.2% of men surveyed think their employer isn’t transparent on gender pay differences.

Finsia CEO Russell Thomas says the gender pay gap in the financial and insurance services sector is one of the widest in Australia.

The research finds the gender pay gap is 31.3% in the financial services sector, compared to 17.4% in other industry sectors.

“This is the second gender balance research we have undertaken and it has further informed our call to regulators to encourage companies to develop measurable objectives to assess their progress on workplace diversity,” Mr Thomas said.

“The results underline how important it is for the industry as a whole to continue to deepen discussions about gender equity.”

Another bone of contention was the perception of the number of women working in an organisation.

The survey found 61.9% of women didn’t think they were well represented in their organisation while 64.2% of men did.

“This is another interesting finding because only 34.1% of managers and 7.4% of CEOs in the financial services industry are women,” Mr Thomas said.

“While some organisations are performing well in this regard it’s not what the analysis of the industry as a whole tells us. The facts speak for themselves.”

The research also finds nearly half of those surveyed (49.3%) work for an organisation with a publicly stated gender diversity reporting regime policy, up from 25% in 2010 when Finsia first surveyed the industry.

“Transparent reporting will give the industry a base from which to seek out the appropriate mix of policies and strategies to improve the representation of women in the industry,” Mr Thomas said.

“The next evolution of the gender diversity debate will reveal those companies that take seriously the benefits of diversity to improve productivity and innovation.”

A total of 658 Australian-based male and female finance industry professionals provided answers to the online survey by Finsia.

The numbers of respondents holding middle management positions were 34.5% while 35.9% were at a senior executive level.