Women more likely than men to be on minimum wage

Women are more likely than men to earn the national minimum wage or less, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Around 10 per cent of employees surveyed between April and December last year earned the national minimum wage or less.

The figures were outlined in the CSO's Quarterly National Household Survey for the last three quarters of 2016 which was released on Wednesday.

Of the 155,100 employees who reported earning the national minimum wage or less, 84,400 (54.4 per cent) were female while 70,000 (45.6 per cent) were male.

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“This compares to the overall split of all employees in the State being 49.4 per cent male and 50.6 per cent female,” the CSO report said. “In total, 9.3 per cent of all male employees in the State earned the national minimum wage or less and the corresponding figure for females was 10.9 per cent.”

The national minimum wage is currently €9.25 an hour, up from €9.15 since January.

The CSO said 155,100 employees reported they earned the national minimum wage or less. Around 22,500 employees said they earned less than the minimum wage. A quarter said this was related to being a “special training rate”, while 5,800 employees reported that it was an age-related rate.

Services sector

The services sector accounted for more than four out of five (81.7 per cent) of all employees who reported earning the minimum wage or less. Specifically, the wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector accounted for 25.9 per cent of these employees, followed by the accommodation and food services sector (24.7 per cent).

The proportion of Irish employees who reported earning the national minimum wage or less was 8.7 per cent compared to 17.3 per cent of all non-Irish employees.

Almost two in five of those earning the minimum wage or less were in the 15-24 age category, while in total this age cohort represented less than 10 per cent of all employees in the State.

More than a quarter of those earning the minimum wage or less were in the 25-34 category.

Education

Persons aged 35-44 accounted for 16.3 per cent, while those aged 45-54 made up 11.7 per cent of employees on the minimum wage or less.

Workers with lower levels of education were also found to be more likely to earn the minimum wage or less. In total, 19.4 per cent of all employees whose highest level of education was primary or below reported that they earned €9.25 an hour or less.

For employees whose highest level education was third-level honours degree or above, just 3.4 per cent said they earned the minimum wage or less.