Young women are struggling to rise above a “sticky floor” at work amid a gulf in financial confidence between them and young men that leaves one in four clinging to jobs they don’t enjoy, research suggests.

British women aged 18 to 30 are worrying more about money, are more likely to feel their financial situation is getting worse, and more likely to be unable to afford food or other essentials than young men of the same age, according to a survey of about 5,000 young people, shared with the Guardian.

The snapshot of divergent financial fortunes for the two sexes comes despite progress in closing the pay gap for older women and more women breaking through glass ceilings at work, said Claire Reindorp, the chief executive of Young Women’s Trust, which carried out the study.

Last year, the largest increase in the gender pay gap was among employees aged 30 to 39 years, where it increased from 2.3% to 4.7%, official figures show.

Reindorp said: “The problem for young women is the sticky floor. [At a young age] they get sorted into retail, care, hospitality and into low pay and they can’t get out of it.”

Young women are also more likely to have taken on new debt in the last 12 months than young men and save less, the research carried out in July and August found.

The gulf between the sexes on work and finances was revealed to be stark in several areas:

• 41% of young women said their financial situation has worsened over the last 12 months, compared with 27% of young men.

• 55% of young women are “filled with dread” by their household finances compared with 43% of young men.

• 40% of young women have had to cut back on or stop doing things they enjoy in the last 12 months because they can no longer afford them, compared with 28% of young men.

• 32% of young women said their hopes for the future had worsened over the last 12 months, compared with 25% of young men.

“It’s quite bleak,” said Reindorp. “The cost of living crisis hasn’t gone away, although it is hitting the headlines less, and for groups which have less of a financial buffer and who are precarious, like young women, it’s biting down on them very hard.”

She cited “a significant degree of misogyny out there” with the trust’s surveys of human resources decision-makers revealing some won’t hire women because of the “risk of their fertility” and some who believe women are “less suitable to senior management jobs”.

The findings come amid stalling progress in closing the gender pay gap for people in full-time work. Since the pandemic it has stayed flat at about 7.7% in the UK in 2021, 2022 and 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Pippa Rawlinson, 27, a single mother living in Bournemouth, said her legal career had been held back as a result of systems that did not provide sufficient, affordable childcare to allow her to compete for work on a level playing field with men, who could often work longer hours as they didn’t have children to look after.

She has an eight-year-old daughter and when she was competing for a training contract she missed out because she had to leave on time instead of working late.

“You’re up against other trainees for a very limited number of newly qualified positions,” Rawlinson said. “And if you are somebody that does get in at 9am and leaves at 5.50pm because you have to pick your child up, and there’s other people who are in at 8am and they’re not leaving till 7pm and they’re billing higher than you are, it’s a no-brainer in that respect. That responsibility [for childcare] does fall on women disproportionately. I’m not saying that men are not affected, but statistically, it impacts women far more.”

Neither could she boost her earnings by seeking a £70,000 training contract in London rather than a £24,000 contract in Hampshire.

Rawlinson said: “I’m stuck here because my child goes to school here, and I don’t have the luxury of just saying, I’m gonna throw caution to the wind and go into a room share in London, or another major city, and work there. I am tied to a very small area.”

She said the overall system was sexist. “It is essential that we have access to affordable childcare with good hours. [Options] are few and far between. They really restrict young women’s ability to work. We want to work. I love my job. I love the career I’m in.”