The International Labour Organisation said yesterday that working women across the world are generally better educated, more experienced and more productive than their male counterparts, but are still paid less.

In its latest study of global wages, the United Nations agency said that men were paid more than women in all 38 countries it examined, showing a firmly entrenched worldwide gender pay gap.

The largest gap was in the United States, where women earn $64.20 (£41) on average for every $100 (£63.75) earned by a man.

The discrepancy in the US might be explained in part by factors such as men’s greater productivity, education or experience, the ILO said.

However, in Europe, Russia and Brazil, women scored higher than men for such attributes but the pay gap still existed.

“One of the factors accounting for that is discrimination,” said deputy director-general Sandra Polaski.

“It may reflect different factors in different countries, but certainly discrimination is part of it.”

In the 26 European countries studied, women should expect 0.9 per cent more than men based on those factors, but actually earned 18.9 per cent less.

In Brazil, Russia, Denmark, Sweden and Lithuania the pay premium for women should amount to more than 10 per cent, while in Slovenia it should be 18.5 per cent.

The agency also warned workers that stagnant wage growth in rich countries was a result of corporate penny-pinching and not competition from cheap labour.

Average wages in developed countries have grown only 0.4 per cent since 2009 despite a 5.3 per cent increase in workers’ productivity, the ILO said.

Globally, wages are slowly converging as poor countries close the gap with rich countries.

But much of this was because of attacks on wage growth in developed economies, which was a stingy 0.1 per cent in 2012 and 0.2 per cent in 2013.

It was not cheap labour causing wages to stagnate, said Ms Polaski.

Profits had recovered since the global crisis but were not being reinvested, she pointed out.

“It’s sitting on retained profitability that’s not producing results for the global economy.

“Lower incomes in advanced economies are reducing household demand, decreasing overall demand.”