A new report by the Economic and Social Research Institute has once again highlighted the gender pay gap that exists in the Irish workforce.

According to figures, which were published this morning, women are twice as likely to earn minimum wage with 6.9 per cent of female employees earning under €10 an hour.

This is compared to just 2.9 per cent of male employees.

The report suggest that this is due to the fact that women are more likely to work part-time jobs or seek employment in smaller firms in sectors such as accommodation and food.

“Jobs with these characteristics raise the likelihood of minimum wage employment,” the report said.

The research also found that 13.9 per cent of people aged 18-29 and 9 per cent of non-nationals earned the minimum wage.

The minimum wage in Ireland currently stands at €9.25 an hour, though there have been calls to increase that to a 'living wage' of €11.50 an hour.