New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that 6.4% of employees earned the National Minimum Wage (NMW) or less in the fourth quarter of 2019.
This was down from 7.6% the same time previous year.
The CSO said the number of employees who self-reported earning less than the National Minimum Wage stood at 21,900 in the last three months of 2019, down by 10.6% from the fourth quarter of 2018.
A total of 122,800 employees said they earned the NMW or less in the fourth quarter of 2019, down by 10.5% from Q4 2018.
Meanwhile, the proportion of employees who reported earning more than the NMW was 93.6%, up from 92.4% a year earlier, the CSO added.
Today's figures show that women are more likely than men to earn the NMW or less - a consistent feature of the series since it began in 2016.
Of the 122,800 employees who reported earning the NMW or less in Q4 2019, 54.2% were women while 45.8% were men. This compares to an overall even split of all employees in the State of 50% each for males and females.
Meanwhile, the Services sectors accounted for more than four out of five of all workers who reported earning the NMW or less, which continued a similar trend from earlier periods.
The CSO said the accommodation and food services activities sector accounted for 30% of all employees who reported earning the NMW or less while the wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector accounted for 28.7%.
Today's figures also reveal that the highest share of employees earning the NMW or less (54.7%) was in the 15-24 years age group. This was up from 50% a year earlier.
The CSO said this age group represented 12% of all employees in the State in the final quarter of 2019.
83.3% of employees earning the NMW or less in the fourth quarter of last year were Irish nationals, up from 77.3% from a year earlier. The share for non-Irish Nationals fell from 22.7% to 16.7% over the same time.
The national minimum wage stood at €9.80 per hour in the fourth quarter of 2019.
