The difference in salary cheques of men and women get wider with age, a study suggests.

According to British Office for National Statistics, women in their forties were the biggest losers in the pay divide as they earned an average of 20 per cent less than the men.

The findings revealed that female managers were likely to experience an even wider salary gap.

Even as women start with earning roughly the same as men, the pay divide widens with age after women interrupt their career to have children.

The figures published in the ONS journal Economic and Labour Market Review indicated the pay gap increased in line with the number of children a woman has.

An average pay for a mother of one working full-time is 12.3 per cent less that of a man working full-time. For women with four or more children, the gap grows to 35.5 per cent.

One explanation might be that maternity leave slows a woman's progress up the career ladder or women with a larger number of children might choose less demanding jobs offering a lower salary.