The pay gap between men and women has fallen by just 1 per cent in the past year as full-time women workers' pay rose by 3.4 per cent.

Over 12 months, full-time women’s weekly pay rose by 3.4 per cent to £426 compared to a 1.8 per cent rise for men at £531 a week.

While the gap has narrowed, there remains a 16.4 per cent gap between men and women’s pay.

A spokesman for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: “The improvement in the gender pay gap is something to be welcomed and we hope this trend will continue.

“However, it continues to be a concern that women who work full-time can expect to earn 16.4 per cent less per hour on average than their male colleagues."

He added: “If this rate of decline continues it will be another 17 years before women and men will be earning equal pay. We encourage employers to look at their individual gender pay gap and make it a priority to address.

Women are often paid less because many with families work part-time, with 41 per cent of female employees working part-time.

On a weekly basis, women earned £156 compared with men who were paid £144.

Yesterday, figures from the Office of National Statistics revealed the first increase in people joining the workforce in over a year.

While the overall rate of unemployment slowed to 30,000 in the three months to September to £2.46 million.

Dr John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: "Unemployment remained below 2.5 million in the three months to September primarily because there was a rise in part-time employment, temporary employment and contract working ... this more than offset a continued marked deterioration in full-time jobs for employees."

Despite the recession, median gross weekly earnings rose 2.2 per cent from 2008 to £397. The average annual salary rose by 2.6 per cent to £25,800.

The North-South divide is still apparent in earnings, which were highest in London, with its high proportion of financial services and professional workers, at £627 and lowest in the North East at £436.

The gender pay gap for full-time workers was highest in the South East and lowest in Northern Ireland.

The lowest-paid workers are in sales and customer service occupations, earning £296 a week, while managers and senior officials earned the highest average weekly pay at £713.

There are still a substantial number of UK workers earning less than the minimum wage.

Figures show that 0.9 per cent of UK jobs — or 242,000 jobs — held by people aged 16 or over pay less than the minimum wage, mainly part-time jobs.

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