Women paid €3 less than men for every hour worked last year

Average (mean) hourly earnings for women were €25.06, compared to €27.73 for men, according to the CSO’s latest structure of earnings survey.

The gap was highest in the financial, insurance and real estate sector, at 24.7pc. The lowest gender pay gap was in the education sector, at 2.7pc.

There was no sector where women were paid more than men.

UK nationals had a gender pay gap more than three times that of Irish people. UK women earned €23.88 per hour on average to men’s €32.71, a 27pc pay gap. The figure for Irish nationals was 7.5pc, with women earning €25.98 for a man’s €28.09.

The gap for older people was also far larger for younger people.

Younger women (aged 15-24) earned €0.03 more than men their age last year. But women aged 50-59 earned 16.7pc less than their male counterparts, or €27.51 per hour compared to €33.03 for men.

The overall pay gap figure of 9.6pc is lower than the most recent data available from Eurostat which put the Irish pay gap at 9.9pc in 2020. The EU average was 12.7pc in 2021.

It is also below the figure that emerged from Ireland’s first round of gender pay gap reports last December, which showed a gap of between 12.3pc and 12.6pc, according to Irish Independent and PwC analysis.

Today’s data was gathered by the CSO from an annual survey of 40,000 people, conducted in October last year. Gender pay gap reporting applies to fewer than 700 companies.

A gender pay gap is not an indication of pay discrimination, which is illegal. It measures the average difference between men’s and women’s average pay across an entire organisation.

But it can indicate that there are fewer women in higher-paid positions, for example, or more at the lower end of the pay scale.

The next round of pay gap reports is due in December this year, for firms with more than 250 staff.

The CSO data shows tech workers earned the most last year (€42.44 on average per hour, in mean terms) while people working in accommodation and food services earned the least (€16.38).

But tech workers had almost double the number of paid hours as hospitality workers.

Financial, insurance and real estate workers had the second-highest earnings per hour.

Hourly pay was higher in each sector for full-time workers than for part-timers.

Bigger firms - those with 1,000 employees or more - paid the highest wages.

People who earned the most had been at their firms for between 20 and 29 years.

In terms of education level, people with a PHD or higher qualification earned the most, at €39.92 per hour. That compares to just €14.73 for people with no formal education.