Women living in south east London will effectively work three weeks or more 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.

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.

Hourly figures are used to remove the effect of overtime.

Equal Pay Day will be marked on November 20 – after which women across the country effectively stop earning relative to men – by the Fawcett Society, who said the rising cost of living means raising awareness of the pay gap is vital for women across the country.

Below shows the rough estimate of how much women are paid in south east London

Bexley

Office for National Statistics estimates show full-time female workers in Bexley earned an average of £21.23 per hour excluding overtime as of April, while their male peers earned £23.63 – a gap of 10.2 per cent.

For part-time workers across the country, the gender pay gap was 0.2 per cent last year, while in Bexley, men earned 5.3 per cent more than women in part-time roles.

Bromley

Full-time female workers in Bromley earned an average of £22.71 per hour excluding overtime as of April, while their male peers earned £30.72 – a gap of 26.1 per cent.

In Bromley, women earned 17.6 per cent more than men in part-time roles.

Dartford

Office for National Statistics estimates show full-time female workers in Dartford earned an average of £20.45 per hour excluding overtime as of April.

Their male peers earned £21.94 – a gap of 6.8 per cent.

Women earned 21.9 per cent more than men in part-time roles in Dartford.

Greenwich

In Greenwich, full-time female workers earned an average of £23.56 per hour excluding overtime as of April, while their male peers earned £24.17 – a gap of 2.6 per cent.

Women earned 17.5 per cent more than men in part-time roles.

Lewisham

Office for National Statistics estimates show full-time female workers in Lewisham earned an average of £21.57 per hour excluding overtime as of April, while their male peers earned £23.6 – a gap of 8.6 per cent.

In Lewisham, men earned 7.7 per cent more than women in part-time roles.

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.

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.

A spokesperson added that the Government has introduced legislation for the right to flexible working, shared parental leave and pay, and doubling free childcare.

Have you got a story for us? You can contact us here.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with all the latest news.

Sign up to our newsletters to get updates sent straight to your inbox.