Women employed by Croydon Council are paid almost 10 per cent less than men, it has been revealed, prompting calls for the authority to tackle the gender gap.

Male council staff earn an average of £33,813 a year, which is 9.4 per cent higher than the average female salary of £30,477.

The council has 1,799 women and 925 men in its workforce.

Councillor Alison Butler, deputy leader of the council, admitted the size of the pay gap gave her “cause for concern”.

She added: “The council has clearly got some more work to do on this.

“We have always been quite firm that we have to look at issues around not only gender but our ethnic representation and representation of the borough as a whole as part of our workforce.

“The more women we can encourage to get involved then that encourages more women to come along and it is not seen as an all-male, traditional workplace.

“I would be really pleased that some work goes into closing that gender pay gap because I don’t think it is acceptable.”

The council attributed the pay gap partly to a gender split in its part-time workforce. 23 per cent of its part-time workers are women, compared to 6 per cent men.

Among full-time staff, men earn £34,127 a year and women are paid £33,176 - leaving a pay gap of 2.8 per cent.

Cllr Butler, who raised three children as a single parent while working full-time, said achieving equality also meant accommodating the needs of women so they could pursue their careers.

She said: “The flexibility around kids being ill or dropping them off at school before getting to work and things like that are equally important to ensure that women can succeed in their careers.

“It is a huge balance, and I am not taking fathers away from this, but mothers in particular are always thinking, ‘Am I doing the right thing by my kids by being at work? And at the same time you want to show them that being at work is the right thing to do.”

The Government came under fire last week for delaying the introduction of new rules requiring companies with more than 250 employees to disclose how much they pay male and female staff.

The rules were due to be enforced this year but will now be implemented in 2018.

The Office of National Statistics puts the current gender pay gap across the country at 19.2 per cent.

Sophie Walker, Women’s Equality Party leader, accused the Government of “too little ambition" adding: “It is shocking that we are still talking about the gender pay gap, 45 years after the Equal Pay Act was passed.”

What do you think? Email andrea.downey@london.newsquest.co.uk or call 020 8722 6307