Workers in the North can expect to earn £3,080 less per year on average than English colleagues

The figures, which refer to full-time employees, show a worker here can expect to earn £25,999 a year compared with their English colleagues, who can expect to earn £29,079.

Equally, workers here can expect to earn £2,355 less than our Scottish cousins on average.

By contrast, the gap between Northern Irish earning power and Welsh earning power is minimal, however, just £25 less on average over the year, remarkably.

John Pullinger, a national statistician at the authority, outlined the figures in a letter to DUP MP Gregory Campbell, who raised the matter at Westminster.

He wrote: "The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom.

"In April 2017 (the latest period for which data are available) the median gross annual earnings for full-time employee jobs in (a) England was £29,079, (b) Scotland was £28,354 (c) Wales was £26,024 and (d) Northern Ireland was £25,999."