A UK Study of 2000 high income-earning clients of Barclays Wealth and Investment Management has revealed that high flying businesswomen who run their own companies earn more than their male counterparts by 17 per cent, reversing the gender pay gap in favour of women.  

While part-time women workers are ahead of part time men by more than five per cent, among full-time workers in their 20s, wages for men are less than half a percentage point ahead of those for women.  

Researchers found that female entrepreneurs in the UK out-earn their male counterparts by 17 per cent. It found that women running their own businesses paid themselves 382,000 pounds, a figure 16.8 per cent higher than the equivalent of 327,000 pounds for men. In contrast, women executives working for other people's businesses typically earned 217,000 pounds, some 21 per cent lower than the 273,000 pounds earned by men.   The success of female entrepreneurs comes despite their scarcity compared to men among business owners, report said.  

Evidence suggests that some of the most driven women executives set up their own businesses because they want to arrange flexible working hours around their families, and in other cases high-paid women are reaping rewards for a cautious approach to company debt.