Irish women in Britain earn significantly more than either British or Irish men in the UK, new research reveals.

Irish women are the only women from an ethnic background in the UK who earn more than British men.

Their earning potential has increased by a quarter over British men since the early 1990s, according to research conducted by the Fawcett Society which campaigns for gender equality and women's rights in the UK, and the University of Manchester.

The research looked at earnings of various ethnic groups in the UK from 1990s to the early part of this decade.

It found Irish women earn an average of £18.04 (€20.79) an hour in Britain. Irish men earn £17.40 (€20.05) an hour, as do British men.

Irish women’s earnings are significantly higher than that of women in Britain in general, where average pay is £15.34 (€17.67) an hour.

Irish women are the only ones in Britain whose pay growth has outpaced that of British men since the 1990s.

Two factors have been identified in the performance of Irish women in the British labour market.

Because of patterns of emigration, with a lot of women from the 1980s now reaching their peak earning potential, Irish women are significantly more likely than British women to be in a managerial position.

Some 9 per cent of Irish women are in higher paid managerial and professional jobs; the equivalent for British women is 6 per cent.

A further 29 per cent of Irish woman are in middle manager roles compared to 22 per cent of white British women and 21 per cent of white Irish men.

Irish women are much more likely to work full-time than white British women, at 59 per cent of those economically active compared to 51 per cent. They also have the lowest unemployment rate of any of the groups of women surveyed, at 2 per cent, and the lowest percentage of those economically inactive doing unpaid care work at home, at 4 per cent.

The Fawcett Society has identified the fact that Irish women in Britain are significantly older than the general population as the principle factor in their greater earning power.

Almost a quarter (24 per cent) of Irish women are aged 50-65 compared to 18 per cent for the rest of the population, while 15 per cent of them are aged 20-35 compared to 20 per cent of the population. Career progression could therefore play a role in Irish women’s higher pay.

Separate research shows that Northern Ireland also has a small full time gender pay gap, with a gap of 4.3 per cent but with much lower average hourly earnings.

In Northern Ireland mean hourly pay for men is £14.82 (€17.08), and £14.19 (€16.35) for women.

Eurostat figures published this week show that women in Ireland earn 16 per cent less than their male counterparts.