Women who work full-time in insurance and financial services will earn on average about $30,000, or 26%, less base salary than their male counterparts – the biggest gap of any industry in Australia, according to a new report.

It is the second year in a row that insurance has fared worst in the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) report.

The gap for total remuneration, including bonuses, is 33%, compared with 35% the previous year.

The average base salary gender pay gap across all industries is 17.7%, down from 19%.

Report co-author Alan Duncan says the findings strongly indicate companies that promote gender equity in senior leadership will improve gender pay outcomes.

“Organisations that increased the share of women in executive leadership roles by more than 10% between 2015 and [last year] recorded a reduction in the organisation-wide gender pay gap of three percentage points over the course of a single year,” Professor Duncan said.

WGEA Director Libby Lyons says regardless of what industry women operate in, they are worse off than men when working full-time.

“The analysis is clear: gender-balanced workplaces and gender-balanced leadership teams lower the gender pay gap,” she said.

“We must address the stereotypes dictating the work women and men ‘should’ do if Australia is to meet the social and economic challenges in the decades ahead.”

The report says the pay gap climbs to 26.5% in key management roles, and gaps are exacerbated by the greater share of discretionary pay awarded to men.

Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre and the WGEA analysed data from 4 million employees and more than 12,000 employers.

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