Mandatory gender pay gap reporting welcomed as companies publish results
Irish companies are continuing to publish their gender pay gap figures after reporting was made mandatory under the Pay Gap Information Act 2021.
Earlier this year, companies employing over 250 people were required to take a 'snapshot' of the business, to examine pay disparities between men and women.
The reports, which must be published this month, include information on the mean and medium hourly remuneration of men in the company compared to women, covering both full-time and part-time workers.
The Act also covers bonus remuneration and benefits-in-kind, and the percentage of men versus women who received these types of rewards.
A large portion of companies have now published their results, with some considerable gaps reported in the financial and tech industries.
Across the four main banks in the State, there was an average gender pay of almost 19 per cent. Ulster Bank, which is set to leave the Irish market, had the largest gap (26 per cent), followed by Bank of Ireland (20.5 per cent) and AIB (18.4 per cent), while Permanent TSB had the smallest difference at 10.5 per cent.
The Irish Times Group, which includes The Irish Times, Irish Examiner and Breakingnews.ie, reported a gender pay gap of 14.47 per cent. Meanwhile, RTÉ found a difference of 13.03 per cent, and Mediahuis, which includes the Irish Independent and Sunday World, recorded a 22.3 per cent difference.
'Getting to the detail'
The National Women's Council welcomed the mandatory reporting, and said the figures shine a light on a lack of equality in the Irish workplace.
The council's director, Orla O'Connor, told Newstalk the mandatory disclosures are a step in the right direction.
"The reporting that is happening under this legislation is really important and significant.
"It's getting to the detail now, so we are getting a better understanding of what is happening in the differences between women and men's earnings," she added.
Among the better performers were An Post, which recorded a gender pay gap of -0.86 per cent, while Eir showed sizeable improvements to reduce its rate from 11.2 per cent in 2021 to 7.18 per cent this year.
However, Irish Rail bucked the trend, reporting a 6.32 per cent pay gap in favour of its female employees.
Meanwhile, tech business, a major sector for the Irish economy, showed mixed results; including Google (5 per cent) and HubSpot (23 per cent).
Despite the positives of the mandatory reporting, there have been calls for the system to be expanded to include more businesses.
In addition, Siptu, which reported a gender pay gap of 13 per cent, has also urged the Government to provide a centralised database to allow figures to be easily accessed, examined and compared.
