An independent economic think-tank says the minimum wage increase has not had much of an impact on household poverty rates.

The ESRI reports that the majority of people who are working in a job with a low hourly wage, live in households where others are earning nearer to the average income.

However, the findings of the ESRI report also concluded that even when low-paid workers are the sole earners, less than 20% of these fall below the EU’s “at risk of poverty” threshold.

Research Professor at the ESRI Tim Callan, the report’s author, said: “A lot of people who are in and around the minimum wage mark themselves are living in households where other people have income that brings them above the poverty line.

“For example, there would be young adults living with their children, so they are starting out in a minimum wage or low wage job, and there would also be people who would be in a minimum wage job who has a spouse or partner who is in a better paid job and so on.”