Women’s pay is growing at more than twice the rate of men and will overtake men’s within a decade if current trends in the labour market continue, according to new UK Government figures. 

The “gender pay gap” – the difference between average salaries of men and women – has fallen to under 10 per cent for the first time ever, figures from Office for National Statistics (ONS) have shown.

The ONS said that earnings for a man in full-time employment, excluding over-time, stood at £13.11 an hour in April 2011, an increase of 0.8 per cent on the year before. Equivalent earnings for a woman were £11.91 an hour, an increase of 1.9 per cent on the year before.

If women’s hourly pay continues to grow at over double the rate of men’s pay, women will start to earn more than men in nine years’ time. On the current trajectory, a woman will earn £14.09 an hour in 2020, compared to £14.06 for a man.

The ONS’s Hours and Earnings Survey also showed that wages in the UK have grown far slower than inflation this year. The average weekly wage for full-time employees in April was £501, up 0.4 per cent from £499 in 2010. This compares to the cost of living rising by over 5 per cent.

The ONS said that the average employee works 39.1 hours a week, equivalent to 8 hours a day for a five day week. The figure is flat on last year.

Average gross annual pay in the UK was £26,871, the ONS said. A geographical breakdown of earnings showed that the constituency with the lowest pay in UK last year was Hull East, where average gross annual pay was £17.416, while the constituency with highest pay was Bermondsey and Old Southwark in London, where average gross annual pay was £50,731.