Australian men still earn more than their female colleagues in all industries, but the gender pay gap is narrowing at a very slow pace.

The fifth Workplace Gender Equality agency review into pay discrepancies between men and women employees found, on average, a man can expect to take home 21.3% more in total remuneration than a woman.

That’s down 1.1% from last year, but equates to a difference of about $25,700 a year.

When looking at a full-time base salary difference, across all industries and occupations, women can expect to earn 16.2% less than a man, or $15,457 less, a year.

The glass ceiling has not cracked much more, with just a 1.4% increase in the number of women CEOs in the last five years, moving from 15.7% in 2013-14 to 17.1% in 2017-18.

Agency director Libby Lyons said there was some improvement, but the pay gap still existed in every Australian industry, occupation and manager category.

The greatest discrepancy was in the financial and insurance industry where a woman could expect to make 30.3% less than a man, while women working in the accommodation and food services industry could expect to bring home 12.4% less.

Public administration and safety was the closest to wage parity, with a 4.9% difference between the genders.

Lyons said the fastest change was occurring in areas where employers had taken the initiative to review their own gender wage gaps and make moves to address it.

There were increases in the number of employers analysing their remuneration data for pay gaps and embracing “gratifying” policies or strategies to improve gender equality in areas such as succession planning, talent identification, retention, promotions and linking manager KPIs to gender equality outcomes,” she said in her report.

“The strong pipeline of women into management has strengthened and over seven in 10 employers now have either a policy or strategy in place to support gender equality or promote flexible work.”

But there were still cases where employers took no action even when they were made aware of the pay gap.

“Last year, our data identified an “action gap” – organisations have policies

and strategies in place, but they are not making managers accountable for embedding them in their workplaces,” Lyons reported.

“Regrettably, this gap has not narrowed. Although more employers are analysing their pay data, over 40% of those who did took no action.

“There are a few other problem areas. Access to parental leave has ground

to a halt. Although the proportion of women in management has increased, most senior roles, especially at the CEO level, are still dominated by men.”

There had also been little improvement in the number of women

around Australia’s boardroom tables with just over 35% of the boards and governing bodies having no female members.

The government moved to address the lack of gender diversity on its boards in 2016, committing to a target of 50% women on government boards overall and 40% on individual boards.

Last month, it announced women held 45.8% of positions on its boards, but not all individual boards have improved gender parity, with the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility board counting just one woman in its team of six, as of October.

Four of the 19 industries surveyed saw increases in the reported gender pay gap, including the female-dominated health care and social assistance sector.

The largest decline was in the real estate industry, which saw a 5.1% decrease in its gender pay gap, to 26.3%, which also bumped it into the third position, with construction now the industry with the second largest pay gap.

Meanwhile six out of 10 Australian industries remain dominated by one gender, after media and telecommunications moved from mixed to male-dominated.

But the professional, scientific and technical services moved from male-dominated to mixed. Education and training became even more female dominated, increasing the number of women by 1.1%.

The WGEA’s dataset covers 40% of employees across Australia, including 53.7% full-time employees, 21.6% part-timers and 24.7% casuals. Women account for 50.1% of the employees within that dataset.

Politicians in the UK recently issued a save the date card for a party to celebrate when the country’s gender pay gap would be closed, asking guests to RSVP for the year 2235, on current indications.