The ITUC study showed on Thursday women got paid 33.4 per cent less then men in Japan, 31.5 per cent less in South Korea and 32.7 per cent less in China.

In the United States wages of female workers were lower than those of their male counterparts by 22.4 per cent, in Canada the difference reached 27.5 per cent and in Paraguay 31.3 per cent.

'This report reveals in detail the extent of discrimination women face in being paid equal to men for performing the same work around the globe,' said ITUC President Sharan Burrow.

In some countries, however, women were much better off - in Bahrain they got paid 40 per cent more on average than men and in Qatar and Costa Rica 2.2 per cent more.

'This is explained in part by the low participation of women in the workforce, but those women that do work are more likely to be highly educated, highly skilled and in higher paid jobs,' the report said of the Bahrain figures.

In Europe the average pay gap is 14.5 per cent and has been shrinking over the last 10 years, ITUC said.

The wage differences range from 3 per cent in the small Mediterranean island of Malta to 25 per cent in Estonia, 22 in Germany and 20 in Finland, Britain and Austria.

Data from WageIndicator, an Internet based, self-reporting salary survey through which people can compare their pay to people with similar jobs, showed women are often educated equally as high as men, or to a higher level.

'Higher education of women does not necessarily lead to a smaller pay gap, however, and in some cases the gap actually increases with the level of education obtained,' ITUC said.

The pay gap tends to be smaller for unionised workers but increases in female-dominated jobs, like health care education or social work. -- REUTERS