The gap has narrowed since the company began reporting the data in 2022. Last year the pay gap was 20.06pc. In 2022, it was 22.3pc.
The gender pay gap is not an indication of pay discrimination, or different pay for the same work, which is illegal, but it reflects the higher share of men in better-paying roles.
All companies with more than 250 staff in the Republic of Ireland have had to publish an annual gender pay gap report since 2022. Mediahuis said that if its businesses in Northern Ireland and the Republic were looked at on an all-Ireland basis, the mean gap would substantially reduce to 15.5pc, and the median pay gap – the difference between the pay of an average male and average female employee – would fall to 9.5pc.
In a commentary on the latest figures, Mediahuis Ireland said the main driver of the gender pay gap reflects there being more men than women in higher-paying areas including leadership, publishing, technology and sales.
The company, led by Mediahuis Ireland CEO Peter Vandermeersch, said the numbers include some employees paid through the Irish payroll but who work for Mediahuis Group, which may impact the numbers. Additionally, the company said the Irish operations have a higher distribution of males in commission-based roles across sales teams.
Take-up of a redundancy scheme this year also led to a number of female employees leaving.
“While we’re pleased to see our gap continuing to move in the right direction, we don’t shy away from the fact that we still have a lot of work to do. Our focus remains on taking positive steps to increase female representation in our management, senior leadership and highest-paying roles,” Mediahuis Ireland said.
The detailed gender pay gap report shows women outnumber men in lower-paid and entry-level roles (54pc verses 46pc) at Mediahuis Ireland, but that is more than reversed higher up the pay grades, with men accounting for 73pc among the top 25pc of earners. Overall, 60pc of staff are men.
Following the publication of its first gender pay gap report in 2022, Mediahuis established an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee. Since then, a new inclusive recruitment policy has seen 51pc of all promotions last year go to female employees and women winning 52pc of all promotions this year.
The company said it aims for half of leaders to be women.
At entry level, Mediahuis Emerging Talent (MET) Programme has helped attract more female journalists and has been expanded to some sales-based roles.
