Campaigners for equal pay have stepped up calls for the gender wage gap to be closed after new figures show women workers now outnumber men in almost half the country.

Research by the GMB union revealed that the British workforce is now split virtually evenly between men and women.

According to the report, there are 12,862,000 male workers compared with 12,696,000 women.

The highest proportion of women workers was found in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, where they made up 61.5 per cent of the workforce.

Other areas where women workers outnumber men includes the Western Isles, Orkney Islands, East Renfrewshire and Inverclyde (Scotland) and Ceredigion, Gwynedd, Conwy and Pembrokeshire (Wales).

Wales had most women workers at 52 per cent of the workforce, followed by Scotland and south-west England, both on 51 per cent.

The lowest percentage of women workers in any major region was in London at 47 per cent, and women workers now outnumber men in 99 out of 203 local authority areas in Britain.

Dawn Butler, the GMB's national organiser, said pay rates for women were up to 25 per cent less than men's - despite the growing number of women workers.

"The fact that the gender pay gap is tolerated is now having a negative economic impact in almost half the country," she said.

"Women have less money to spend because of the gender pay gap and this is holding back the development of the service sector in many parts of Britain.

"Closing the gender pay gap is not just a matter of fairness, it is also an economic imperative to enable areas to escape economic decline and stagnation."

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