Women in Hampshire earn £200 less than men every week – making the county one of the worst areas in the UK for unequal pay, according to shock new figures.
The Office for National Statistics' latest Regional Trends report says that despite decades of campaigning for parity in the workplace, working women still trail their male colleagues in the pay stakes.
There is an average difference of £202.20 pe
r week between men and women in full-time employment across Hampshire. That's £40.44 per day.
Maureen Frost, chief executive of the Portsmouth and South East Hampshire Chamber of Commerce, said she was taken aback by the figures, but believed it was a reflection of lower career aspirations among women.
She said: 'It's taken across all kinds of different jobs so I don't think it's reflective of men and women in the same role.
'Women do tend to take on lower-paid jobs in retail and lower-paid hospital jobs, for example – but even still it's quite a gap.
'It could be that women simply don't have the same aspiration because of their lifestyle choices, tending to spend more time on families, whereas the desire to progress upwards seems to be hard-wired into men.
'But speaking as a woman, it is still difficult to get into a senior management position, and I think government legislation has in some instances made matters worse.'
Fareham topped the local list of shame, with men earning £207.10 per week more than women.
This is considerably higher than the south east average of £194.20 and the UK average of £143.30.
Locally, Portsmouth was lower than the national average.
Megan Dobney, South East TUC regional secretary, said: 'The gender pay gap across the South East is unacceptably high.
'When women are underpaid, the whole family suffers.
'Employers, unions and the government all have a vital role to play in closing the gender pay gap.'
The full article contains 327 words and appears in NS-City newspaper.
