Close The Gap calls for action as Scots women's pay falls further behind

Yet across the UK there was a narrowing of the gender pay gap to 17.4 per cent, the lowest since the survey began in 1997.

Herald View: Time to crack down on gender pay discrimination

The pay gap map shows a postcode of gender pay disparity across Scotland from East Ayrshire, the only local authority area where the pay gap is 0.6 per cent in favour of women, to Inverclyde where the men are typically paid 26.8 per cent more than women and Aberdeen where there is a 22.9 per cent gap.

Close the Gap said there had been "very little progress" on narrowing the pay gap at all in recent years. Ten years ago the gender pay gap was at 18.5 per cent.

Anna Ritchie Allan, executive director of Close The Gap said: “The figures make grim reading for working women in Scotland. There has been no change in women’s experiences of employment which finds them clustered into undervalued, low-paid jobs such as cleaning, caring and retail.

"We know the lack of quality part-time work particularly affects women, and results in their persistent under-representation in higher-paid, management and senior positions."

All charities, private and public sector employers with 250 or more employees will be required to publish details of their gender pay gaps by April 2018.

Herald View: Time to crack down on gender pay discrimination

Ms Allan said she welcomed the new requirement but said does not go far enough.

"Without taking steps to change their employment practice and reduce their pay gap, employers are missing out on under-used female talent," she said.

“The pay gap is an endemic problem which requires a cohesive, strategic response to address its many inter-related causes."

Hugh Aitken, director of CBI Scotland, the industry lobby group, said the challenge of closing the pay gap requires action from businesses and government alike "to address better careers advice, progression and support networks, like childcare".

He added: "As well as self-evidently being the right thing to do, improving gender diversity at work increases the productivity of the Scottish economy as a whole, while also improving business’ access to skills, decision-making and staff engagement.”

Patrick Woodman, head of research for the Chartered Management Institute, said that while the ONS data showed a welcome narrowing of the gender pay gap across the UK, the picture is much less rosy for women the higher up the ranks you go with a 26 per cent pay gap for chief executives and senior managers.

According to CMI research, there is a 27 per cent pay gap among the UK’s 3.3 million managers, where men outnumber women three to one.

"The lack of progress for women into more senior roles is one of the biggest causes of this gender pay gap. There’s a huge prize for businesses that get this right, because equal representation of men and women could add £150 billion to the UK economy in the next 10 years," said Mr Woodman.

“Transparency is a great driver for change. We urge the 98 per cent of businesses that have yet to publish their pay gap data under the new government regulations to step up and put plans in place to fix the issue.”

The new figures came as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that £230,000 would be ploughed into projects to tackle the gender gap and help "break down some of the barriers which can prevent women achieving equality in business".

Women’s Enterprise Scotland will receive £60,000 to recruit and train a further ten ambassadors to act as role models to encourage more women to start up and grow their own businesses. Business Women Scotland’s #BWSLiveEvents programme will receive £60,000 for events across Scotland to bring together female entrepreneurs for networking and support.

The Principally Women Programme, delivered by Scottish Enterprise, will receive £60,000 to encourage "inclusive growth" through the skills development of female company leaders.

Herald View: Time to crack down on gender pay discrimination

And the Ingenious and Enterprising Women in Scotland programme will receive £50,000 to support female early career researchers in industry and academia from across Scotland "to develop entrepreneurial skills to realise the full potential of their ideas".

Last month it emerged that the average woman's salary at the Scottish Parliament was 11.1 per cent lower than the average man'.

Even the BBC has been under pressure over pay equality since it was revealed that two-thirds of its stars earning more than £150,000 are male, with Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans the top-paid on between £2.2 million and £2.25 million.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are determined  to do all we can within our current powers to close the gender pay gap.  We are developing a Workplace Equality Fund aimed at reducing employment inequalities- ensuring women are better represented in senior and decision-making roles and we are challenging pregnancy and maternity discrimination.

“We will continue to engage with partners, including Close the Gap to gain further insight and drive future progress.”