Women earn more than men until they start having children

WOMEN earn more than men in their 20s, according to figures that show the traditional gender pay gap does not start until later in life.

An analysis of official figures has revealed that, between the ages of 22 and 29, a woman will typically earn £1,111 more than her male counterpart.

But this advantage ends at 30 when male colleagues start to edge ahead of women, who may interrupt their careers to take maternity leave and parttime work when children are born.

A man turning 30 in 2006 would have earnt on average £8,775 more than a woman of the same age by the time they turned 37 in 2013.

Ann Pickering, human resources director at O2, said the research highlighted that there is still a long way to go before genuine parity is achieved between women and men.

“While women are earning slightly more than men in their 20s, they are still overtaken by men later in life – and the reason is simple. Women are playing catch-up when it comes to reaching senior well-paid positions,” she said.

“If women are not in the same roles as men, how can they be on the same wage?

“The slight salary imbalance in favour of women early on in their careers is particularly interesting – and makes that ‘drop-off ’ point in women’s careers and salaries all the more stark.”

Earlier this week, a study by the Chartered Management Institute and wage analysts XpertHR revealed women managers are effectively working for nothing for 57 days a year due to the gender pay gap.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) said that women will earn 40 per cent less than men over the course of their lives.

David Cameron announced plans to force large companies to reveal the difference in pay between men and women in an attempt to bridge the gap.

He added that he wants to “create the pressure we need for change” to help drive up women’s wages and close the pay gap “within a generation”.

Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender equality, suggested more senior roles would go to women if they were offered on a part-time, or job share, basis.

“Unless there is good reason not to do so, that should be a company’s default thinking,” she said.

“Sadly, the opposite is true: once you get to certain level it’s a full-time role, which excludes many women from roles they would be perfectly capable of doing.”

The overall gender pay gap, which the ONS defines as the difference between men’s and women’s hourly earnings as a percentage of men’s earnings, stands at a record low of 19.1 per cent as of April 2014.