Female retailers paid 20% less than male colleagues

That works out at an average pay gap of £4,300, or 19.4%, according to the Chartered Management Institute. An average male manager earns £22,252, while women earn £17,937.

The average gender pay gap across all industries is 26.8%, with finance one of the worst at 33.9% and IT one of the best at 8.2%.

Under new governmental reporting regulations, which came into effect in April, large employers must now publicly disclose their gender pay gap.

As of September 22, just 77 of the 7,850 UK companies to which the new law applies have fulfilled that obligation.

The Chartered Management Institute’s data is based on an analysis of the salary data of 118,385 managers from 423 organisations over the past year.

CMI chief executive Ann Francke said: “Too many businesses are like ‘glass pyramids’ with women holding the majority of lower-paid junior roles and far fewer reaching the top.

“We now see those extra perks of senior management roles are creating a gender pay gap wider than previously understood. The picture is worst at the top, with male CEOs cashing in bonuses six times larger than [those of their] female counterparts.”

The CMI also found that, across industries, women were more likely than men to occupy junior management positions and men were more likely to occupy director positions. Almost three-quarters (74%) of directors are men and two-thirds of junior managers are women.

If women do reach director-level roles, the pay gap widens to an average of £34,144, with men earning an average of £175,673 and women £141,529.

Bonuses exacerbate the issue with the gender bonus gap across all industries and management levels at 46.9%.

This increases to 83% at c-suite, with an average bonus for a male chief executive standing at £89,230 and an average bonus for a woman in the same role at £14,945.