The gender pay gap among larger Irish firms narrowed slightly last year, according to analysis from PwC Ireland.
Companies with 250 or more employees are obligated to report their gender pay gap each year, with 550 firms submitting details for 2023.
There was an average pay gap of 11.2% last year, compared to an average gap of 12.6% in 2022.
Despite the improvement the figure compares unfavourably to the national pay gap of 9.6%, as reported by the Central Statistics Office for 2022.
However it is better than the most recent figure for firms across the European Union, which stood at 12.7% in 2021 according to Eurostat.
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"I'd say the progress is muted rather than monumental," said Doone O'Doherty, PwC Ireland's people leader and workforce tax partner
"Not unexpected, and similar to the trend we saw in other territories that introduced gender pay gap [legislation] ahead of us."
Ms O'Doherty cited a number of reason that help explain the slow progress on the gender pay gap.
One is that companies had a relatively short period of time between their 2022 and 2023 submissions - making any real change difficult.
She also said a longer-term view is needed on this issue, as substantitive attempts to address the problem will likely take time to bear fruit.
Ms O'Doherty also pointed out that progress is not necessarily linear - as companies attempts to improve their gender balance, like hiring more female graduates, could actually worsen their gender pay gap in the short-term.
According to PwC Ireland's analysis, the legal profession had the biggest gap at 35.1%.
That represented a six percentage point decline on the 2022 figure.
The gap in the legal profession was closely followed by the aviation sector, where the gap was 33.5% - though this represented a four percentage point improvement year-on-year.
The pay gap in the construction sector stood at 21%, while the banking sector had a gap of 18.9%.
"In the legal profession it's historically known that representation of females at a senior level can be quite low, and those figures would absolutely bear that out," Ms O'Doherty said. "When we analysed pay quartiles across all of the companies that submitted their report, we saw that as well.
"Women are under-represented in the highest paid quartile - 39% - over-represented at the lower-paid quartiles and you're seeing that very strongly in the legal profession."
The research found that a gender imbalance in the workforce can be a contributing factor in their gender pay gap.
Of the construction and engineering companies that reported on their pay gap, just 24% of their workforce was female.
Meanwhile retail and health, which had single-digit pay gaps, also had majority female workforces.
From this year more companies will be required to submit gender pay gap reports - with the legal obligation extending to companies with 150 employees or more. Next year it will include companies with 50 employees or more.
However Ms O'Doherty said there is no easy fix for those looking to improve their own figures, and progress will take time, and an understanding of the underlying problem.
"It's hard to give a one-size-fits-all answer," Ms O'Doherty said. "Our advice to companies is you need to analyse your data, you need to understand what your issue is.
"Are you struggling to attract and hire female candidates? If so, you need to look at more inclusive recruitment policies.
"Companies need to look at progression and promotion rates amongst both genders - and, if there is an issue, they need to look at fair allocation of work, fair allocation of opportunities.
"If there is an issue with retaining senior staff, and in particular senior female staff, they need to look at mentoring programmes and leadership programmes."
