MODEST gains were made in closing the gap between the average pay for men and women working at companies based in Swindon.

Since 2017 organisations, charities and public sector bodies with more than 250 employees must report the gender pay gap - the difference in average pay between men and women of all staff.

Nationwide, one of Swindon’s biggest employers, saw the gap close from 29 to 28 per cent.

This means that, on average, women overall earn 31p less per hour than men at the company.

A spokeswoman said: “Our gender pay gap is a consequence of the composition of our workforce: we have significantly more women than men in our junior jobs and relatively fewer women than men in our more senior jobs.

“Gender pay is really important to us as an organisation. We have made progress, but we know we need to do more, particularly to recruit, retain and promote more women into more senior roles and this will remain a priority for us.”

Similarly WHSmith acknowledged the biggest factor behind the gap was the number of men in executive positions at the firm.

It recorded a mean gender gap of 19.7 per cent last year, down from 20 per cent for 2017. Its median gender pay gap stood at 0 per cent.

Group HR director Anthony Lawrence said: “At WHSmith, women make up 65 per cent of the workforce and 27 per cent of the senior management team. We know that our gender pay gap will only disappear when we have more women participating in senior management and leadership roles and, at WHSmith, we are on a pathway to make this happen.”

At First Great Western, owners of GWR, the median gender pay gap was actually in favour of women, with a pay gap of -5.1 per cent. The mean pay gap stood at 3.1 per cent.

The workforce comprises 23,471 men and 3,804 women. Although only 14 per cent of these employees are female, 56 per cent of these women are in the upper and upper middle pay brackets, whereas 51 per cent of men are in the lower and lower middle quartiles. As a result, the median hourly pay for women is higher than that for men.

One of the changes it made was simply to switch the job title from driver manager to people manager on some services, resulting in a three-fold increase in applications from women.

Chief executive Matthew Gregory said: "Our overall gender pay gap figure for 2018 continues to reflect our absolute commitment to ensuring fairness in pay and progression regardless of gender.

" I am proud of the progress we are making to create a more diverse and inclusive company. Of course, there is still much more to do; during 2019 I will continue to drive progress against the four actions set out above, working to close gender pay gaps where they do exist in some of our individual businesses.

On average, women working for Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust earn 26.19 per cent less than men. It is a slight improvement on the previous year, when the pay gap was 27.17 per cent.

The mean hourly rate of pay for men last year was £20.54, whereas women were on average £15.11.

However, interim HR director Sheridan Flavin told a meeting of GWH executives this week that the figures were heavily skewed by the numbers for medical and dental staff. Of those employed in senior medical and dental positions at the hospital, 69 per cent were male.

At least two female candidates were being included on panels interviewing for new jobs in a bid to redress the gender balance, she said.

Ms Flavin added: “When we look at the split of the junior doctor workforce split coming in, while it will take a little time for that to come through, I think I would be alarmed if in the next five years we don’t see more senior medical staff balance coming through.”

However, she said it would take a longer to see the gender change among consultants, the most senior doctor positions at the trust.