The heads of ANZ and Bank of New Zealand have kept their own bank balances healthy by earning a combined $7 million last year.

ANZ chief executive David Hisco's pay rose from A$3.26m last year to A$3.71m (NZ$4.1m) - a 13 per cent jump. ANZ is the country's largest bank and recently announced a record profit for a third year running of $1.43 billion.

Mr Hisco, one of New Zealand's highest-paid chief executives, earned 106 times more than an ANZ junior teller.

The total package of his Australian boss, ANZ Group chief executive Mike Smith, grew to A$10.1m, an increase from A$9.67m in 2012.

BNZ chief executive Andrew Thorburn took a pay cut last year with his salary and benefits package reducing to A$2.59m, down from A$2.9m, but still nearly 75 times the average salary of a junior teller at the bank.

BNZ made a profit of $788m in the last financial year, up 6 per cent from the previous year's profit of $741m.

BNZ's Australian parent National Australia Bank paid chief executive Cameron Clyne a total of A$7.76m.

Westpac last week revealed its New Zealand chief executive, Peter Clare, took home $3.15m in the last financial year, down from $3.35m, but his base salary increased to more than $1m.

First Union's acting finance sector secretary Robert Reid said: "Bank workers and the public just find these wages absolutely outrageous. They bear no reality to what value generation occurs in the banks and no human being is worth that amount of money."

He called for a referendum similar to that of Switzerland, which will this week vote to cap executive pay to a ratio of 12:1 between the highest and the lowest paid worker.