Top earners in Kent take home an average of £42,000 more per year than their lower-paid counterparts, figures show.

Campaigners have called for a change of culture in the business world, after figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed “vast economic divides” across the UK.

In Kent, the average weekly pay packet for the top 10% of earners among full-time workers in 2018 was 3.5 times higher than for the bottom 10%.

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The top earners were paid an average £1,131 per week - the equivalent of £58,830 per year.

For lower earners, average pay was just £324 per week, or £16,850 per year.

Luke Hildyard, director of independent think tank the High Pay Centre, said: “The UK is one of the most unequal developed countries in the world with some of both the richest and poorest regions in Western Europe.

“Most people are deeply uncomfortable with such wide divisions and rightly believe that we should be doing better.

“Corporate governance reforms, stronger trade union representation in low-paid, precarious industries and a change in business culture would all go a long way to building a fairer economy.”

The average full-time employee in Kent works for 38.3 hours per week.

With a median salary of £29,666 per year, this means the average worker gets paid £14.90 per hour.

But the average hourly wage for the bottom 10% of workers is just £8.46, compared to £29.54 for those at the top end of the scale.

The figures refer to just basic pay, and do not include bonuses or overtime.

Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, called for the minimum wage to be increased to £10 an hour “as soon as possible”.

The gap between the highest and lowest earners in Kent is slightly bigger than the national average.

Across the UK, the average annual salary for the highest 10% of earners is 3.4 times higher than for lower earners.

Top earners were paid £56,420 in 2018, compared to £16,578 for lower-paid workers - a gap of almost £40,000.

London had the widest gap, where the highest paid earned almost £56,000 more.

Watch Kent Tonight on KMTV from 5.30pm to find out the result of the poll.