Equality | Gender pay gap grows at hundreds of UK firms

Four in 10 companies have reported that their gender pay gap has grown larger since the last time they published it, the BBC reports.

The broadcaster looked at the company's median pay gap – which is the difference in pay between the middle-ranking woman and the middle-ranking man. Of the 10% of firms that have published their updated gaps so far, 74% report a pay gap which favours men, 14% have a pay gap favouring women, and 12% report no pay gap.

Big firms whose gap has grown wider since last year include Kwik Fit, Npower and Virgin Atlantic.

However, overall the picture seems brighter - of the 1,146 companies who have reported so far, the median gender pay gap reported is 8.4% - a slight improvement from 9.7% last year.