Women still get raw pay deal

You may think it's the age of equality, but the average woman's income is less than half the average man's, a study today reveals.

The report highlights the gender gap in wages, pensions and employment. Campaigners hope it will increase pressure on the Government to adopt more radical policies to tackle inequality.

Full-time female workers earned just over 80 per cent of the amount their male colleagues did on average, according to figures published last year. But women's income as a whole, which includes benefits and money from investments, is only 49 per cent of men's.

Katherine Rake, of gender campaign group the Fawcett Society, said: "Money is still a good indicatorof social status so the big question is where the money is in society. This large income gap shows the money still remains primarily in men's hands."

The study, by the Institute for Employment Studies for the Department of Trade and Industry, shows the proportion of women returning to work after childbirth has risen from 24 per cent to cent in 1979 to 67 per cent in 1996.

More women are pensioners but the pension income for wives is far lower than that for husbands.

Women of working age are less likely to work than men and those with jobs are more likely to be part timers