An International Labour Organisation (ILO) report has said women's pay has become closer to that of men in most countries, but warned that in some cases this may just mean that men are worse off now than before the crisis.

There are major differences across the globe when it comes to how much men and women are paid. Statistics sometimes vary depending on whether all full-time, or part-time employees are considered.

In some cases, this is because men's situation in the labour market has deteriorated while women's situation has improved or stayed the same," said one of the co-authors of the ILO's Global Wage Report 2012/13, Kristen Sobeck.

In Norway, the gap in hourly wages is lowest for part-time work. This means that men and women who work part-time have similar pay. But men earn considerably more than women in full-time employment. The gender pay gap is even higher when all employees are taken into account, because a larger proportion of women work part-time, where hourly pay is lower than for full-time work.