Woman worker
Women are getting better off as the gender pay gap in Britain slims (Reuters)

Britain's gender pay gap narrowed across the last fiscal year, though overall wage growth was weak.

Women in full-time work earned 9.6 percent less than their male colleagues in April 2012, a fall from the previous year's reading of 10.5 percent, reported the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

For men, full-time earnings were £546, up 1.4 percent, compared with £449 for women, whose earnings grew by 1.9 percent.

In April 2012 median gross weekly earnings for all full-time employees were £506, an increase of 1.5 percent from £498 the year before.

Part-time employees earned 37.5 percent less an hour than their full-time counterparts.

"There is a difference in the proportion of male and female employees who worked full and part-time," said the ONS in its 2012 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

"For male employees, 88 percent worked full-time and 12 percent worked part-time, while the comparable figures for female employees were 58 percent and 42 percent respectively.

"This highlights the fact that more women work part-time than men and consequently they are more likely to receive lower hourly rates of pay."