The divide in pay for men and women is widest in Whitehall.

Personnel Today reports research by the Office for National Statistics has found median salaries in the Civil Service for full time male employees is 14 percent higher than female staff pay.

The figures from 2008 contrast with a pay gap of 12.8 percent in the economy overall, and come a week after the government unveiled its Equality Bill which will force public sector organisations to publish their pay gaps by 2013.

A government spokesman told the Financial Times: "Since 1997, the number of women in the senior Civil Service has almost doubled and the gender pay gap (which is considerably less than in the private sector) continues to reduce. But there is much further to go, which is why the Equality Bill has tough new measures to require both public and private bodies to report on gender pay. "