Teachers who entered employment in the last four years are on a "severely reduced level of pay", according to the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI).

Teachers who entered the profession from February 2012 have had their starting pay reduced by 21.7% compared to those appointed prior to that, the union has stated.

All three teachers unions - TUI, ASTI and INTO - are holding their congresses this week.

General secretary of the TUI, John MacGabhann, said the situation is intolerable.

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New teachers are living in poverty and are emigrating in order to earn a living wage #tui16

— Teachers' Union Ire. (@TUIunion) March 30, 2016

"For those people who have taken up a teaching position since 2012 are paid at a rate that is approximately 21% less than those who preceded them into teaching by a day, [it] is simply intolerable," he said.

"People doing the same work, before the same students, in the same schools, for the same time, with the same range of challenges and opportunities - except that the opportunity does not extend to having equal pay."