The finance and insurance sector ranks highly on gender equality policies but still has the largest pay gap and under-representation of women on boards, research released by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre and Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WEGA) has found.

The Gender Equity Good Practice Index shows the finance and insurance sector is 2.9 times more likely to be following best practice in gender equity policies and processes compared to the average across all industries.

“This is a sector where three quarters of organisations are conducting a gender pay gap audit annually,” the report says. “This compares to only a quarter of organisations in health care and social assistance.”

Finance and insurance has seen one of the biggest improvements in its gender pay gap over time, decreasing by almost 10 percentage points between 2014 and 2020, but it still tops other sectors with a 27.5% pay gap.

The report also finds that agriculture, wholesale trade, finance and insurance and health care and social assistance have half as many female board members compared to the share of women in these sectors.

The Gender Equity Insights 2021: Making it a Priority report, uses WEGA datasets from 2013/2014 through to the reporting period ending March 31 last year.

The report says despite improvements the pace of change overall across industries has slowed and organisations with a higher concentration of women are less likely to pay close and consistent attention to the issue.

The research suggests there may be greater pressure on male-concentrated sectors to respond while organisations in those areas also have a greater likelihood of being listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, exposing them to scrutiny from shareholders, investors and industry bodies.