An Post has successfully achieved a ‘zero’ gender pay gap for the second year running.

In the rake of figures reported under the gender pay gap law that recently came into effect, the commercial semi-state body maintained its last year’s gap of 0% and according to the company’s chief executive, trade unions played a key role in achieving that.

Chief executive David McRedmond said: “We’re heavily unionised. Unions are very progressive.” 

The head of Fórsa’s Services and Enterprises Division, Katie Morgan said it was a momentous achievement for staff at An Post, some of whom are Fórsa members.

“The union has long been campaigning for the introduction of gender pay gap reporting and the reduction of the gap, and what better example to lead by now than the State postal service achieving this for two years in row," she said.

Separately, the generally reported figures showed that for every €1 a man earns, a woman earns €0.88.

An analysis of figures of Ireland’s largest firms revealed women were paid 12.3% less than men, on average. This gap nearly doubled when it came to bonuses.

However, the reports also showed women were paid more than men at organisations such as Lifestyle Sports, FIFA creator EA Games, fruit grower Keelings’ logistics arm, SuperValu owner Musgrave and Bus Éireann who all had double-digit gaps in favour of women.

The public appointments service which is predominantly female, had the highest gap in favour of women at 21.5%.

Further, an almost zero percent gap existed in the several of the country’s county councils, drinks maker Heineken, Irish tech unicorn Stripe, computing giant Microsoft, retailers H&M and Avoca Handweavers.

The cross-industry reporting also revealed that the gaps were widest in traditionally male-dominated sectors such as construction, law and finance. Out of those, the construction sector took the top spot, with men paid an average 23% more than women.