The differences between women’s and men’s average weekly full-time earnings in Financial and Insurance Services has widened to 24.1%, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) says, from 22.6% a year earlier.

Financial and Insurance Services is second only to Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (25.3%) for having the widest gender pay gap, and compares with pay gaps of 17.2% in mining, 16.6% on construction, and 13.3% in manufacturing.

WGEA data shows women’s average full-time wages are lower across every industry and occupation in Australia. On average, women working full-time earned $1575.50 while men working full-time earned $1837.

Nationally across all industries, the gender pay gap widened 0.8 percentage points to 14.2%.

The data, collected in May and using using the latest Average Weekly Earnings data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), only captures full time workers. People who had their hours reduced as a result of COVID are no longer reflected.

WGEA is staging “Equal Pay Day” tomorrow as an opportunity to remind employers that a "key lever of change” is a gender pay audit to identify discriminatory pay.

“Regular audits close pay gaps faster,” WGEA Director Mary Wooldridge said. “We’re calling on all Australians to ask #WhatsYourPayGap? in their workplaces and industries as a crucial step towards bridging this divide.”

Improving gender equality in the workplace brings clear economic benefits to companies and nations, she says, adding that on current trends, it will take 26 years to close the total remuneration gender pay gap.

The latest WGEA pay gap calculations exclude total remuneration inputs such as overtime, bonuses, pay that is salary sacrificed and superannuation.

The agency also publishes a separate calculation once a year which encompasses both base salaries and total remuneration at companies with over 100 employees, or around 40% of Australia’s workforce. That most recently found a 27.5% pay gap in insurance, and also that the total remuneration gender pay gap across all Australian industries was consistently 5% greater than the one for base salary.