MORE than a third of women working part-time in Bracknell earn less than the living wage new figures reveal. 

Published to coincide with Part Time Equal Pay Day, the figures show 32.8 per cent of women working part time in the constituency earn less than £7.85 an hour, the amount considered enough to live well on. 

The figure was even higher in affluent Wokingham, where 40.1 per cent of part time female workers do not earn a living wage. 

The new analysis by the TUC emerged today, September 2, the day of the year part-time working women, who earn 33 per cent less per hour than men, effectively stop being paid because of the gender workplace pay gap. 

However the towns are by no means the region's worst. 

The highest percentage in the south-east is in Folkestone and Hythe where more than 57 per cent earn less than the living wage, another of the highest was Woking where the figure stands at 56 per cent.

Lowest in the region was Oxford East where 22.5 per cent of female workers earn less, but this still amounts to one in five of the part-time working women in the area.

Women make up three-quarters of Britain’s six-million strong part-time workforce, the lack of skilled, decently-paid, part-time jobs affects women’s pay and their career prospects far more than it does men, the TUC say.

TUC Regional Secretary Megan Dobney said: "Working part-time shouldn’t mean poverty pay, but for lots of women in the South East that is the reality.

"The Living Wage was created to provide workers with a basic standard of living. However, many part-time women in our region earn well below £7.85 an hour and now face being hit by the Chancellor’s cuts to tax credits which will wipe out any gains from his new minimum wage premium.

"Our labour market is failing to deliver for many women. Those looking to work part-time or on a flexible basis are too often restricted to low-level and low-paid positions that do not make the most of their skills. Lots are forced to trade down when they start a family.

"If we don’t create better opportunities and increase wages for part-time staff then women will continue to bear the brunt of in-work poverty.

"We need a recovery that works for the many not just the few."