A LIVING Wage of £10 per hour would give a pay rise to more than a quarter of a million women according to Labour.

The party said it would close a low wage gender pay gap that exists for too many women.

It said that analysis of low pay figures show that there are far more women than men who are paid the Living Wage.

There are 112,000 more women than men working in Scotland who are not paid the current living wage of £8.45 per hour, meaning 22% of women working are paid less than the recognised rate for a decent standard of living.

For men, the figure for below the Living Wage more than one in ten but is lower at 14%.

Labour wants to increase the Living Wage to £10 an hour by 2020 and it would be the new rate for the National Minimum Wage.

Lesley Laird, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, said: “The next UK Labour government will give hundreds of thousands of Scots a pay rise with a real living wage of £10 an hour, and close what is an unacceptable gender gap in low pay.

“It’s not right that over 100,000 more women than men make less than the living wage. One of the reasons for this is low paid professions like caring, cleaning, retail and hospitality to employ women than men.”

She said that there has been much focus on gender pay gaps at the highest end of the income spectrum with TV presenters wages revealed.

Ms Laird added: “2017 was the year we saw controversy about the pay gap between male and female celebrities at the BBC – but this issue isn’t just one for the media bubble, it impacts on almost every workplace in the country.

“We need to transform our economy so that it works for the many, not the few.

“That means boosting pay, cracking down on zero hour contracts and getting tough on companies who think a woman’s labour is worth less than a man.”