Just how many billions are women losing out on due to the UK gender pay gap?

This is shocking.

There has been controversy over unequal pay for as long as we can remember, with women and men campaigning to close the global pay gap that sees women earning significantly less than their male counterparts across most industries.

With high profile revelations from the publication of the BBC top earners list to Catt Sadler’s public resignation from E! over pay disparity, awareness is undoubtedly being raised.

But according to recent figures, we have still got a long way to go in terms of progress.

Statistics compiled by the Young Women’s Trust show that the UK’s 15 million working women are collectively losing out on nearly £140 billion a year.

Yes, that’s £140 billion.

The data was taken from a survey of hours and earnings by UK men and women in full time work over the last year, and even broken down, it still sounds like a shocking amount.

The current gender pay gap sees the average full-time working man earning £39,003 - almost £10,000 more than their female counterparts who earn an average wage of £29,891.

With the average woman missing out on an annual sum of £9,112, UK women as a collective are missing out on a whopping £138 billion.

And if that didn’t sound bad enough, the statists on part-time work only sees the gap widening further, with warnings that unless urgent action is taken, women will face a ‘lifetime of unequal pay.’

‘Employers have until 4 April 2018 to report,’ announced a government spokesperson of the current motions in progress to bridge the gap. ’This will help shine a light on where women are being held back and where employers can take action to support their whole workforce.’

The spokesperson continued: ‘We are proud to say that the full-time gender pay gap is the lowest it has ever been but we want to take this further – we are committed to eliminating the gender pay gap entirely.’