Companies in the financial services industry have taken steps to close the gender pay gap over the past year but the industry still has the widest gap among the 19 sectors surveyed by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. According to the WGEA, the gender pay gap (the difference between average male full-time base remuneration and average female full-time base remuneration) is 19.1 per cent across all industries (24 per cent when total remuneration is calculated).In the financial services industry the base remuneration gap is 27.3 per cent (down from 28.4 per cent last year) and the total remuneration gap is 35 per cent (down from 36.1 per cent last year).The report is based on compulsory reporting by all non-public sector employers with 100 or more employees. The gap largely reflects that fact that more men are in senior roles.Women make up 56 per cent of the financial services workforce. They occupy 6.5 per cent of chief executive roles in the industry, compared with 15.4 per cent overall, and 24.1 per cent of what are classified as "key management" roles (27.4 per cent overall).The WGEA said the proportion of companies in the financial services industry with pay equity objectives in their remuneration strategy rose from 19.7 per cent last year to 30.8 per cent in the latest survey - ahead of the overall average of 25.6 per cent.