WOMEN living in Ceredigion and Powys will effectively work more than one month for free this year due to the gender pay gap, figures suggest.

Women’s rights charity the Fawcett Society said progress in reducing the gender pay gap is too slow, and called on the government to introduce measures to help women into higher-paying work, especially during the cost-of-living crisis.

Office for National Statistics estimates show full-time female workers in Ceredigion earned an average of £16.28 per hour excluding overtime as of April, while their male peers earned £18.11 – a gap of 10.1 per cent.

In Powys, the average earnings were £15.22 per hour, while their male peers earned £16.93 – also a gap of 10.1 per cent.

It means that by the end of the year, women in those counties will have effectively worked without pay since 25 November.

In Gwynedd, the average earnings of £15.62 per hour compared to men’s £16.37 - a gap of 4.6 per cent - means they will effectively work for free from 15 December to the end of the year.

Across the UK, the full-time female workforce is paid an average hourly rate of £18.09 – 11.3 per cent less than the £20.04 hourly wage earned by men.

Jemima Olchawski, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said: “Progress on tackling the gender pay gap is too slow and evidence continues to stack up that women want to see more being done.

“In the context of labour market shortages and the cost-of-living crisis, we really can’t afford not to act.

“We urgently need action from both the government and employers.”

The gender pay gap is the estimated difference between the average hourly wage for men and women across all jobs and is different from the concept of equal pay, which means men and women doing the same job must be paid the same.

For part-time workers across the country, the gender pay gap was 0.2 per cent last year, while in Ceredigion, women earned 28.4 per cent more than men in part-time roles, and in Powys 21.1 per cent more than men; in Gwynedd though, men earned 27.4 per cent more than women in part-time roles.

The Fawcett Society also called on the government to make flexible working available to all to help more women and mothers into work. It said employers should also stop asking “discriminatory” wage history questions and publish salary bands on job adverts.

The government’s Equality Hub said the overall trend of the national gender pay gap has decreased over time since 1997, with a spokesperson adding that the government has introduced legislation for the right to flexible working, shared parental leave and pay, and doubling free childcare.