Susan Dalgety: Rich or poor, one half of the populations earns less

Hands up if you earn £100,000 or more a year. I doubt if many hands shot up, given that the typical salary in Scotland is just over £23,000.

Some 100,000 more women are paid less than the living wage than men. Picture: PA

But if any did, odds on there was a bloke at the end of it. Research out on Monday shows that the gap between men and women earning over £100,000 a year has widened by 23 per cent.

There are now 625,600 men across the UK on six-figure salaries, with only 155,100 women on luxury wages.

While big salaries are out of most people’s reach, the story at the other end of the pay scale is even worse.

In Scotland there are 100,000 more women than men paid less than the living wage. Nearly a quarter (22 per cent) of women workers earn less than £8.45 an hour, compared to 14 per cent of men.

If, like me, your head is beginning to spin with all these numbers, let me spell it out.

Women still earn less than men, no matter how hard, or where, they work. And that is wrong.