Women are losing out on approximately £138 billion a year in the UK compared to male counterparts, figures compiled by the Young Women's Trust show. According to the report, London is the area which is most affected.
Men earn on average £39,003 a year, while women earn around 23% less, coming in at £29,891 for a fulltime job. This is mainly because men are more likely to reach more senior positions, work in higher-paid industries and be paid a higher wage, said the Young Women's Trust.
London-based working women bear the brunt of the pay gap, earning on average £38,467 a year – 28% less than male counterparts, statistics collected by the charity from the National Office of Statistics show.
The extent of the pay gap issue came to the fore recently, when BBC journalist Carrie Gracie resigned in protest at the gender pay gap within the corporation.
Carole Easton, chief executive of the Young Women's Trust, said that more work needs to be done to promote equal pay.
She said: “Real equality means supporting women into better-paid, male-dominated sectors like engineering and construction and tackling low pay in women-dominated sectors.”
Head of policy and insight at the Fawcett Society, Jemima Olchawski, said that women are “consistently undervalued in and excluded from the paid economy”.
“These numbers bring to life the very real impact that has on women's income, leaving them more exposed to poverty and less able to save for their future,” she said.
The Young Women's Trust said: “This year, to mark the centenary of women's suffrage, the Royal Mint has released a new 50 pence piece. To give an idea of how much money women are missing out on, if the Royal Mint only made new fifty pence pieces every day, it would take more than 1,048 years for it to produce enough to plug a single year's pay gap.”
However, as Ms Easton has said, it's not just about making coins, it's about seeing who they go to, “because they certainly won't be going to women”.
