On average, women were paid 4.69% an hour less than men within the company — which is within the target of 5% and less than the 12% difference in 2023. In terms of median pay, the gap stands at 11.82% compared to last 2023’s 13.68%.

Of all the staff at the Irish Examiner and The Echo, 45% are women. In terms of representation at the various pay grades, 65% of those on the highest wages are men — a slight increase from the 62% reported in 2023.

In the upper middle pay tier, 67% are men and 33% are women. This is compared to 70% men and 30% women in 2023.

In order to reduce the gender pay gap every year, the Irish Examiner and The Echo said they plan to achieve a 50:50 gender balance in the top half of the organisation within five years. By 2027, the company plans to be within 5% of eliminating the pay gap.

The company said it plans to do this by reviewing and enhancing their recruitment process to reduce the potential for “unconscious bias and unintended barriers”, measure and report recruitment metrics and trends to the senior leadership team, require candidate shortlists for senior management roles to be as close to 50/50 men/women as far as practicable, and use gender-neutral language in our role profiles and advertisements.

A similar report was also published by the Irish Examiner’s sister publication, the Irish Times.

The gender pay gap in the Irish Times is less than 1%. This is the third year the Irish Times has published this report. Its median pay gap is 2.87%.

However, 70% of the staff at the Irish Times are men and they account for 73% of the highest earners — down from 75% in 2023.

The company said there was a slight improvement in the percentage of women at a senior level in the organisation during the year and a noticeable drop in women in the lower quartile.