TRADE unionists exposed the life of poverty facing millions of women with the release of a dossier detailing their top 10 living-wage blackspots yesterday.

West Lancashire and West Somerset headed the list of shame based on hourly part-time incomes.

In both areas nearly three-quarters of women were paid a rate below the living wage — the amount required to pay for basic housing and day-to-day costs.

In some areas a majority did earn more each hour than this basic bottom line.

Watford, Cambridge and Oxford saw over four in five earn £7.65 or above.

But with four out of six million part-timers women, the Trade Union Congress study concluded that rising in-work poverty in Britain was directly linked to the huge number of them in low-wage jobs.

It branded today the symbolic last day this year when such individuals “get paid,” based on figures which show that on average women in such a situation get 66p for every £1 earned by a full-time waged man.

That’s a pay gap of 34.2 per cent based on their hourly rates.

The TUC added that top professions were “no-go” areas for many women who needed to work part-time. It urged a major change in attitudes to redress the balance.

And it demanded action to ensure that more workers are paid the living wage.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Women are bearing the brunt of growing in-work poverty across Britain today.

“Opening up more senior jobs to part-time working is part of the solution.

“But we also need to look at why so many jobs in Britain pay so little when employers can easily afford to pay staff more.”