Median weekly pay for full-time workers went up by just £1 in the year to April to £518, the smallest growth since 1997, new figures have shown.

Annual increases averaged around 1.4pc a year between 2009 and 2014, but the latest figure represents a rise of 0.1pc, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Adjusted for inflation, weekly earnings fell by 1.6pc, continuing a trend since the recession, to levels last seen in the early 2000s.

The gender pay gap has narrowed by 0.6pc to 10pc, the lowest since records began in 1997, said the ONS.

There were 236,000 jobs with pay less than the national minimum wage in April, representing 0.9pc of all jobs.

Around 9,000 of those were held by 16-to-17-year-olds, and 31,000 by 18-to-20-year-olds.

The ONS said 196,000 jobs paying less than the statutory minimum were held by employees aged 21 or over.

The bottom 10th of full-time employees earned less than £288 a week, compared with £1,240 for the top 10%, the new figures revealed.

The gap between men's and women's earnings from 1997 to 2014 has remained 'relatively consistent' at around £100, although it has been closing in percentage terms.

The gap for both full and part-time employees was also a record low of 19.1%, down by 0.7% from 2013.

The biggest differences are in skilled trades occupations, managers, directors and senior officials, while the lowest are in sales, customer service and leisure.

London topped the regional table for full-time median earnings at £660 a week, £143 more than the figure for the whole of the UK, and around £200 more than in Northern Ireland.

Pay reaches a maximum in the 40-49 age group for men and 30-39 for women.