The Government pledged yesterday to address the pay gap between the sexes after surveys revealed that salaries of female managers had fallen even farther behind those of male colleagues, despite women being promoted more quickly.

Harriet Harman, the Minister for Women, said that discriminatory pay was unfair and inefficient because it prevents women achieving their potential.

Ms Harman was responding to a call by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) for new laws to tackle discrimination and a survey of 42,000 workers by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), which found that the pay gap between women and men had grown, despite the progress that female workers had made in obtaining positions of authority.

The CMI survey of managers in every sector found that women earned an average of £43,571 last year, while men averaged £49,647. Meanwhile, the average age of female team leaders was, at 37, five years younger than that of men leading teams.

Resignations among women also reached a six-year high, and the EOC said that fair-pay cases brought to employment tribunals on the ground of sex discrimination had increased by 155 per cent on last year.

Heather McGregor, a director of Taylor Bennett, the headhunter, believes that the rise in resignations among female managers is a sign of an improving job market for women. “Proportionately, as a sex, women are better at multitasking than men,” she said. “There are also more women with strong interpersonal skills.”

Women account for more than half of the professionals whom Taylor Bennett places, Dr McGregor said, and they are more qualified than ever and better able to prioritise their careers. “We have been in business for 25 years and we have seen a marked difference between the academic and professional qualifications of women over that time,” she said. “Historically, women haven’t moved jobs as much as men. Even if they worked, they were still running a home. The younger generation are more likely to share that burden.”

Sophie Field became one of the youngest private equity professionals in Europe when she joined Merchant Equity aged 24. This week she was named Harper’s Bazaar & Aqua-scutum Young Businesswoman of the Year. Women in senior posts are now less likely to tolerate perceived discrimination, Ms Field believes: “Attitudes to women are changing. Investment banks have so many senior women to look up to and it’s no longer considered acceptable to consider them any different. Women and men do negotiate very differently – it’s more of a male thing to storm out of a room if they’re not happy with their bonus.”

The survey found that bonuses accounted for 14 per cent of men’s salaries, against only 10 per cent of women’s last year. Pay scales in the public sector were blamed for exacerbating wage inequality.

Bernadette Cadman, a health and safety inspector, sued her employer after learning that male colleagues earned 25 per cent more for the same job. “One group of people should not be penalised for being promoted early,” she said.

Katja Hall, the CBI’s head of employment, urged the Government to reject EOC calls for businesses to be required to audit pay for gender differences. “The gender pay gap has closed significantly, but too many women still do not reach their full career potential,” she said. “Companies are working hard to ensure that there is equality in the workplace and compulsory pay audits would be time-consuming, expensive and divert attention from more effective measures to tackle inequality. The continued growth of flexible working practices, more affordable childcare and better schools careers advice for girls would all deliver better results.”