New figures show women working at budget airline easyJet lag behind their male counterparts in terms of salary more than at any other company surveyed.
More than 500 organisations with 250 or more workers have so far published data revealing the difference in average pay and bonuses for male and female employees.
For easyJet the mean hourly rate for women was 52% lower than for men, while the figure stood at 15% lower for Ladbrokes Coral Group (LCG) and 33% lower at Virgin Money.
All three firms said men and women in the same roles were paid the same, and put the gender pay gap down to having more men in higher-paid positions.
At easyJet, for example, just 6% of its pilots – who earn an average salary of £92,400 – are women, while females make up 69% of its cabin crew, earning £24,800 on average. The firm said it was seeking to recruit more women pilots, with a target of 20% of new entrants by 2020.
LCG said the gender pay gap was “largely a function of weak representation at our senior levels”, and said it was looking to improve gender representation.
Virgin Money said it aimed to achieve a 50:50 gender balance by 2020 as just 35% of employees in the highest paid quartile were women, against 73% in the lowest quartile.
Organisations reporting low or no pay gap included the British Museum and UK armed forces, while Cambridgeshire Police said women had a mean hourly pay of 13% more than men.
