Smashing the gender pay gap

The finance and insurance industry has one of the largest gender pay gaps - the average base salary gender pay gap is 19.2% and the average total gender pay gap is 22.2%. In comparison, the average base gender pay gap across all industries sits at 16.7%. 

Despite this, many finance industry employers hold citations such as ‘employer of choice for gender equality’ and numerous finance industry CEOs are members of ‘male champions of change’ groups. The finance industry tries so hard to to attract and retain women in their workforce, why is the gap still so large? There’s no simple answer.

Reference: Australian Government. Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) 2024 Visit WGEA

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has released its second round of employer-specific gender pay gap data, and the results continue to highlight serious issues within the finance industry's largest employers.

You can view our breakdown of the latest gender pay gap data for employers in the finance industry, or find your employer's median gender pay gap on the WGEA website here.

The new data confirms gender inequality remains entrenched across the finance industry, with women earning on average $53,549 less per year than men. Despite women making up 53% of the finance and insurance services workforce, the median total gender pay gap remains at 20.9% - one of the highest of any industry - and only 13% of CEOs in the sector are women.

All of the big four banks have reduced their gender pay gap over the past 12 months, showing that mandatory public reporting is having a positive impact. Westpac remains the big bank with the worst gender pay gap at 28.1%, just one percentage point ahead of CBA's 27.1%. The most improved employer in the sector is Australian Mutual Bank, who reduced their gender pay gap from 19.8% to 9.6%.

Through our Smashing the gender pay gap campaign, we are committed to breaking down the barriers that prevent women from fully and equally participating in the workforce.