The gender pay gap isn’t a myth (Picture: Getty Images)

British women in full-time work are currently being paid 13.9% less than their male counterparts.

If you include part-time workers, it’s 18.1%.

Government is ignoring advice that could close gender pay gap

This pay gap is a generally accepted fact, one the current UK government are vocally committed to eradicating within a generation.

And yet, whenever an article about the pay gap surfaces online, the same comments appear – the pay gap is a myth, women have equality, feminists are ruining everything.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

So here are some handy points with which to tackle any arguments that the pay gap is non-existent.

Of course men get paid more – they work longer hours than women

Yes, men do work longer hours than women.

41% of women work part-time, versus only 12% of men.

That’s why pay gap figures are based on hourly pay rate, not annual salary. If it were based on annual salary, the gap would of course be far higher.

It’s just business sense to pay women less – they go on maternity leave, and therefore the company doesn’t benefit as much from them as from men

A US report last year suggested that complete gender parity in the workplace – in terms of both salary and working hours – could see the US GDP rise from anything between $2.1 trillion to $4.3 trillion by 2025.

So it’s good economic sense all round to pay women the same as men, and do more to facilitate their return to work after childbirth.

Men are probably just better at the job than women

The pay gap starts young (Picture: Getty)

A survey by Childwise revealed a gender pocket money gap in British children – boys get 20% more pocket money than girls.

That rises to 30% between the ages of 11-16.

The pay gap exists even before kids start employment.

It clearly has nothing to do with whether or not men are better at the job than women. It’s habitual.

But women get more out of the system in the long run – they live longer than men, so they get more pension

Women have lower pensions than men because they earn less across their lifetime.

Single female pensioners are much more likely to live in poverty than single male pensioners, or pensioners in a couple.

But young women actually earn more than men

Yes, a study revealed that women aged 22-29 are out-earning their male peers by just over £1,000 a year.

That changes rapidly once they are in their 30s, and female earning power starts going down.

If women didn’t choose to leave full-time work in order to have children, then their earning power wouldn’t go down

Until shared parental leave came into effect in 2015, women were the only ones entitled to any paid leave, so it wasn’t much of a choice.

With full-time childcare costing on average around £217.57 a week (£302.17 in London), it often works out as more cost-effective for the mother to stay at home with the child, so ‘choice’ often doesn’t come into it.

While the number of men choosing to be stay-at-home dads is increasing, it’s still a tiny percentage of the number of women who are taking on full-time childcare responsibilities.

Women are only paid less because they aren’t as good at negotiating pay rises and promotions as men are

Might that be because two thirds of management positions (and 93% of CEO positions at FTSE 100 companies) are held by men?

Managers – both male and female – are likely to hold an unconscious bias in favour of hiring and promoting men over women, which puts women at a disadvantage when it comes to reaching the highest paying jobs.

It’s absurd to assume that all companies are sexist, therefore the gender pay gap figures must be wrong

Yes, it is absurd to assume that all companies are maliciously sexist – of course they aren’t.

The gender pay gap isn’t just down to companies – childcare costs, education, career advice bias and gender stereotypes all play their part too. Joy of joys.

There are some industries in which women are paid more than men

Midwives have the biggest gender pay gap (Picture: Getty)

True – according to this handy tool, the largest pay gap actually exists between midwives, and the gap is in favour of women.

But in the vast majority of industries, including many of the highest paid ones, the gap favours men.

But men need to earn more to support their families

If childcare was more affordable or if flexi-hour/job share positions were more senior and better paid, then men wouldn’t have to shoulder the entire financial burden of supporting their family.

Then maybe men would be less prone to stress and suicide than they currently are. Everyone wins!

Aren’t there more important things for feminists to be complaining about?

Ah, the most common accusation levelled at women complaining about sexism in literally any context.

Yes, as citizens of the UK our pay gap is smaller and our freedoms are greater than in other countries.

But being considered ALMOST equal to men is a pretty crappy compromise, so we’ll keep complaining until we have full equality, thank you very much.

MORE: The pay gap isn’t women’s fault, but we do have the power to fix it

MORE: Keira Knightley just slammed Hollywood’s ‘ridiculous’ gender pay gap