FULL-TIME female workers will be effectively toiling away for no wages from today until the new year as a result of the gender pay gap.

Equal Pay Day marks the point every year when men continue to earn while women, in effect, stop being paid because of massive salary differences for doing the same or similar jobs.

Men are earning an average of 14.2 per cent more per hour, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The gap is also wider at the top of the career ladder, according to a TUC report.

Gender equality campaigners called on the government to do more to close the pay gap.

Tory PM David Cameron has vowed to “end the gender pay gap in a generation” and has announced new rules requiring every company with more than 250 employees to publish average pay and bonus differences between female and male employees.

Equal Pay Day is five days later than last year, indicating that the pay gap has generally narrowed, but it will otherwise “take 50 years” to close it unless ministers act faster, said Fawcett Society chief executive Sam Smethers.

The higher women climb the career ladder the wider the gap in pay they face compared with their male counterparts, a TUC report has claimed.

Men holding the top 5 per cent best-paid jobs earn a huge 46 per cent more than women for doing the same or similar role — even though women face a tougher time proving themselves worthy of these positions.

The gap jumps to 55 per cent for those in the 2 per cent best-paid jobs. So, a man would earn £117,352 per year while a woman would get £75,745 for doing the same work in this category.

This massive unjust difference of £40,000 per year would also have a knock-on effect on women’s pension contributions and additional job perks, as well as their promotion prospects.

The so-called glass ceiling that prevents women from being truly equal to their male colleagues is “barely cracked, let alone broken,” said TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady.

She added: “It is shocking Britain still has such a large gender pay differences at the top of the labour market after more than four decades of equal pay and sex discrimination legislation.

“We need pay transparency, equal pay audits and a requirement on companies to tackle gender inequality — or face fines.”

The Fawcett Society also recommended that bosses offer flexible working for mothers and carers, who are most likely to be women, and that companies adopt the living wage as more than 60 per cent of workers not receiving it are also women.

Employees can also help speed up the process of equality by discussing pay gaps at their workplace.

Ms Smethers continued: “The message to women and men at work is — it’s OK to talk about pay.

“How can we achieve pay equality if we don’t even know what our colleagues earn? It’s time to have that conversation.”