YOUNG women with the same qualifications as men the same age are paid as much as 15 per cent less, shocking new research reveals today.

Official figures showed that men aged between 22 and 30 with a vocational qualification above GCSE level will earn on average £10 per hour.

But women with the same qualification level will earn just £8.50, the TUC revealed ahead of its young workers’ conference this weekend.

The gap for young workers with vocational qualifications is almost one-third higher than that between young men and women with academic qualifications, where the difference is 10.5 per cent.

And the gender pay gap for any young woman outstrips the overall gap of 8.5 per cent across the board.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Young women with vocational qualifications experience a huge gender pay gap.”

She warned that many women were still pursuing jobs in lower-paid industries traditionally seen as women’s work.

According to the research just one in 40 vocational qualifications in construction were awarded to women last year.

Women also received just 10.8 per cent of vocational qualifications in engineering and manufacturing.

In contrast women were awarded 63.6 per cent of vocational qualifications in healthcare in 2015.

Ms O’Grady said that women remain a “rarity” in better paid sectors like engineering and construction.

She called for unions, employers and the government to “challenge gender stereotyping and discrimination from the outset” and offer mentoring for women working in industries in which they are traditionally unrepresented.