More than 50 percent of women are perceived to be victims of unequal pay in the IT sector.

And the lack of equality is pushing women away, costing the economy billions.

A survey by IT trade group Intellect suggests more than half of women working in IT are on a pay package not comparable to that of male colleagues performing similar roles. More than one in three claim to have evidence of this.

The results of the annual Perceptions of Equal Pay research also shows the number of women employed in the sector has fallen to just 16 percent. Intellect claims unequal pay has fuelled the drop despite there being an acute skills shortage in the UK's £120 billion industry. It states attracting and retaining women would solve this problem and make it an even more.

Carrie Hartnell, Women in Technology programme manager at Intellect said: "It is clear that perceptions of unequal pay in the technology industry still abound and I am disappointed by the small scale of improvements on last year’s results. In most cases perceptions of inequality have only fallen between one and five percent.

"Today’s findings illustrate how a lack of equal pay in the technology industry is damaging our economy. Intellect is urging the private sector to follow the lead of the public sector and implement equal pay audits as soon as possible."