BrewDog has admitted it pays women almost 3% less than men on average.

The Scottish brewer faced criticism this week after rebranding its Punk IPA beer "Pink IPA" for International Women's Day.

BrewDog said the promotion was intended to draw attention to the gender pay gap and sexist marketing, but later apologised for "failing to land the joke".

The beer maker's 2.8% gap is better than the UK average of 20%, but only a quarter of the senior staff listed on the company's website are women.

The average pay gap in Scotland is around 16%.

A BrewDog spokeswoman said: "We've declared a median pay gap of 2.8% and we fully intend to release our full report in line with government requirements.

"We're aware a gap of any size is still an issue and as we are already seeing higher rates of internal promotion for women, we're confident we are already making strides to close that gap.

"We want to be open to anyone of any gender identity to become a part of our team, and wish to provide an equal workplace for everybody."

Ellon-based BrewDog is one of hundreds of UK companies with 250 employees or more which are legally obligated to reveal their pay gaps by April 5.

The brewer intends to donate 20% of the profits from Punk IPA and Pink IPA sales over the next month to charities which support women, and people who identify as female will be able to buy the beer for 20% less.

BrewDog said the campaign was conceived by a team of women and was a "satirical joke".

A gender pay gap is the difference between the average hourly earnings of men and women.

It is different from equal pay as it has been illegal to pay men and women differently for doing the same job since 1970.

A gap is often the result of men occupying most of the top jobs at an organisation.