Gender pay gap narrows slightly

LONDON (Reuters) - The difference in average pay between men and women in full-time work narrowed slightly in 2009, with the greatest disparity remaining for those in skilled trades, official data showed on Thursday.

The Office for National Statistics said men in full-time work earned a median 12.97 pounds an hour before tax, compared with 11.39 pounds an hour for women -- a difference of 12.2 percent compared to 12.6 percent in 2008.

These figures strip out separate overtime payments, because men tend to do more overtime, but do not take into account any difference in the careers pursued by men and women, levels of education, career breaks or seniority.

The pay gap between men and women varied widely between different types of work. It was narrowest for those in professional jobs, where men earn just 3.8 percent more an hour than women, and was also low for sales, associate professional and technical jobs.

But for skilled trades -- a category with a wide range of jobs from plumbers to florists -- the gap was 26.2 percent. The gap was also large for managerial and factory jobs, at 20.2 percent and 20.8 percent respectively.

Part-time work is generally paid a significantly lower hourly rate than full-time work, even for similar jobs. So the fact that almost four times as many women as men work part time widened the total hourly gender pay gap.

The ONS data is based on an annual survey of around 177,000 responses in April each year. It differs from monthly ONS salary data -- which only covers 9,000 employers -- by including details on occupation and hours worked among other things.

(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Patrick Graham)