Last year, McDonald's beat off bad headlines about zero-hour contracts by offering 115,000 UK workers fixed pay deals.

Female staff at the company appear to be lovin' it again after it emerged a franchise holder in the county has one of Kent's lowest gender pay gaps.

PA Crocker, which has a network of 17 McDonald's franchises across the county, revealed it had just a 3.1% difference between the pay of men and women.

Nearly half (47.1%) of people in its top pay quartile are women while 60.3% in the upper middle quartile are women, according to an analysis by KentOnline of figures published by the government's gender pay gap service.

The company, which employs 1,700 people, is run by entrepreneur Paul Crocker, who opened his first McDonald’s franchise in Margate in 1995.

It compares favourably against high-profile companies like over-50s holiday company Saga in Folkestone, which pays women on average 20.7% less than men, and beer and pub firm Shepherd Neame in Faversham, which has a 26.9% gender pay gap.

It comes as the deadline passed at midnight last night for companies to publish details of what they pay men and women.

Mr Crocker, who lives in Whitstable, could not be reached for comment.

Shepherd Neame, which employs 1,500 people, has women in 30.1% of its highest paying positions, compared with 55.3% of its lowest paying roles. About 47% of staff are female.

A spokesman said: "We are a fairly complex business with a diverse set of roles and functions ranging from manufacturing and packaging to property management and engineering.

"Some of these have historically attracted more men than women, but we actively encourage female applicants to all vacancies are now seeing more and more women join the business, throughout the brewery and in more senior roles.

"We are committed to ensuring the gender mix becomes balanced across the business."

Saga's highest paid jobs - the top quartile - are filled by 43.5% women, while its lowest paid roles are filled by 61.1% women. About 56% of its staff are female.

HR director Karen Caddick said: “Saga is an advocate of equality, diversity and inclusion and we therefore wholeheartedly welcome the transparency created by publication of gender pay across all organisations in the UK.

“We recognise that at Saga we have a gender pay gap and we are both passionate and committed to addressing it.

"In line with many other organisations the gap is largely driven by the demographic make-up in favour of men in some of our most senior and high paying positions within the company.

"We acknowledge there is no “quick fix” to this, and achieving more equal gender representation across our organisation requires sustained drive and focus."

Aylesford-based Kent Frozen Foods, which has just had a takeover by US giant Sysco confirmed by competition authorities, actually paid women an average 9.2% more than men.

Women occupied 41.2% if its highest-paid roles but less than 30% of all its other pay quartiles. It employs about 280 people.

Other Kent companies which have reported gender pay gaps include Canterbury-based Motorline (women paid 34% less than men), train operator Southeastern (21.7%), Margate-based Reliable Contractors (25%), Sevenoaks-based FM Conway (16.3%).

Scott Maynard, human resources director at Southeastern, said: "We welcome the additional focus that gender pay reporting brings to this important issue. Southeastern is typical of many train companies in that women are significantly under-represented in all areas of our workforce.

“We’re determined to increase the number of female applicants for all roles at Southeastern. We are also working with current and prospective female employees to understand how we can better attract, retain and develop them.”

Joanne Garwood, central services executive director at FM Conway, said: “As it currently stands, construction employs fewer women than other industries which skews the sector’s performance on gender pay.

"FM Conway’s pay gap is reflective of this challenge. As an industry it’s important that we use this opportunity take stock and look at the actions we can take to encourage women into construction.

"This is an important priority for FM Conway as we seek to do more to attract, retain and develop female talent."

The figures take a snapshot of companies' wage bills from April 2017.