Islington’s health services have defended their gender pay gaps showing male staff earning more than women.

At the Whittington Hospital, the gender pay gap stands at 5.3 per cent in favour of men, the same figure as last year.

A spokesperson for the hospital said: “Our gender pay gap is largely driven by a small number of male administrative staff who receive proportionately high pay on an hourly basis.

“In a number of our staff groups – such as nursing, allied health professionals and doctors in training – our female staff earn more per hour, on average, than our male staff.”

The gender pay gap at Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust has grown by nearly a third over the past 12 months – from 7.8pc to 10.1pc.

“Reducing the gender pay gap is central to our longer term workforce strategy,” the hospital told us.

“It entails actively looking at how we can attract more women into senior roles and ensuring all women have the opportunity and ability to progress their careers through talent management, flexible working and ongoing personal development.”

Islington Council said it was happy to be among 14pc of organisations with a gender pay gap favouring women.

For every £10 the council’s average male employee earns, its equivalent female peer will take home £11.10 (a disparity of 11pc).

A council spokesperson said: “We’re proud that the council’s gender pay gap is a positive picture for women.

“Broadly, the disability pay gap is also positive though we know we need to do more to improve reporting levels and support for staff generally.

“We also still have work to do to improve career progression for BAME [black, Asian and minority ethnic] staff at middle and senior grades and we have plans in place to address this situation.”

Nationwide, more than three quarters of organisations pay men more, BBC analysis shows.

These figures look at the median pay gap – the difference in earnings between an organisation’s middle-ranking woman and middle-ranking man.

By law, all organisations with greater than 250 employees are required to publish their gender pay gaps.