The Chartered Management Institute has found that female managers are now paid an average of over £10,500 less than men doing the same job.

In the past year, the already significant pay gap has widened by £500. Female managers are now paid an average of £31,895 per year, compared to £42,441 average pay for a man in the same position.

The CMI said that, at current rates, it would take 98 years to reach equal pay.

Yet female junior managers have been found to earn more than males for the first time.

According to the CMI's survey, junior women managers earn on average just over £600 more than their male counterparts. The institute said that these were generally recent graduates, in charge of projects rather than teams of people.

Women's salaries, which have increased by 2.4% this year, continue to rise at a faster rate than men's, which have risen by 2.1%.

CMI director of policy and research, Petra Wilson, said that although the institute is "delighted" that female junior managers have caught up with men, "this year's salary survey demonstrates, yet again, that businesses are contributing to the persistent gender pay gap by alienating top female employees by continuing to pay men and women unequally".

Wilson stressed that this kind of "damaging" practice must be addressed.

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