The pay gap between men and women in Britain widened significantly over the past year, according to statistics collected by PayFinder.com, a website designed to let people compare their salaries with those of others.

The findings indicated the average gender gap is now 24 per cent, up from 5 per cent one year ago.

With more than 125,000 registrants providing information on the site, PayFinder.com claims it is becoming the definitive salary database, for both employees and employers in Britain. Staff