The gender pay gap is being addressed in some instances with female executives earning as much as their male counterparts, suggests new research.

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) revealed that with an average salary of £21,969, “junior” female executives were just edging ahead of their male colleagues at the same level, who earned £21,367.

However, at a senior level, there are still a massive disparity between the amount men and women were paid in similar positions.

Petra Wilton, director of policy and research at the CMI, said that while they were delighted with the figures highlighting that women at a junior level had caught up with men at the same level, businesses were still contributing to the “persistent gender pay gap”.

She said: “This kind of bad management is damaging UK businesses and must be addressed.

“It is the responsibility of every executive – both female and male, organisation and the government to help bring about change. Diversity shouldn’t be seen as something that has to be accommodated, but something that must be celebrated.”

Ms Wilton added that mandatory quotas are not the ideal solution to this problem. Instead, what was needed was more government scrutiny, greater transparency and for organisations to be named and shamed if guilty of “fuelling the gender pay gap”.