Almost two-thirds of hospitality workers (64 per cent) find their work days draining, while 53 per cent said they had witnessed an incident of bullying or harassment in the last two years, a study has found. New research carried into employment across the sector found that 6 per cent of hospitality workers say they receive less than the minimum wage and 11 per cent believe they are not paid for all of the time they work.The survey of 736 mainly young, female and Irish workers finds almost three-quarters of respondents (70 per cent) believed their managers or owners were good employers. Meanwhile, 73 per cent said they enjoyed their work environment, while 84 per cent they viewed working in the sector as a long-term career choice.Dr Deirdre Curran of the University of Galway, who led a research team comprised of academics from there, Queen’s University and the Technological University of Shannon, and who carried out similar research in 2021, said the results suggested working conditions in the sector were “improving but not by enough”.She acknowledged migrant workers were underrepresented in the survey with 77 per cent of those who participated Irish and almost half of the rest from European countries, but said reaching workers in the sector is “challenging” with many wary of expressing their views.“For a lot of migrants, English mightn’t be the first language, in which case they are that much harder to reach and if Irish workers are worried about answering questions about their work then that’s only going be more of an issue for workers from overseas.”She said the findings had been presented to sector employer groups, who criticised it as an overly negative characterisation of conditions experienced by members of a workforce put at more than 250,000 in a sector with an annual turnover put at €12 billion. The research was peer reviewed by three international experts in the area, she said, and is the largest of its type conducted among workers in the sector.Despite 43 per cent of those surveyed saying they were on the minimum wage, Curran said there was clear evidence people liked working in hospitality but found the pay an issue when considering making a career in the sector.The predominance of young respondents (two-thirds were under 27), Curran said, “is more reflective because it is more of a sector for young workers because it’s bloody hard work. That contributes to the attrition rate as workers get older as does the prospect of having a good standard of living.”She described the survey as “a snapshot”. However, she said what it suggested was “this is a two-tier industry with a chunk of workers who are students, working to keep themselves and will put up with a certain amount of ill treatment because they are easily replaceable. But that lowers the standard for the people who would love a career in the sector but would also love to get a mortgage and have 2.2 kids. For a lot those people, it is not delivering.”Industry sentiment was found to be downcast despite a drop in insolvencies. Thirty-seven per cent of hoteliers expressed optimism for the sector, 59 per cent of food businesses reported a drop in sales and 62 per cent reported issues with recruitment and retention due to the housing shortage. The authors recommend the implementation of the measures put forward by a joint Oireachtas committee report on the sector. That included the establishment of an oversight body with regulatory legal powers and the commissioning by Government of more research on the sector.