Women continue to earn less than men. In 2014, the gender pay gap for Ireland was calculated at 14.4 per cent, below the EU average of 16.4 per cent.1 Addressing this important gender equality issue is one of the primary objectives of the National Women’s Strategy 2007 to 2016. However, the gap has increased since the introduction of the Strategy when it stood at 11 per cent2 meaning that its initiatives have failed to bring equal pay for men and women any closer.3 Lower female participation rates in the labour market, less stable contractual arrangements and the prevalence of segregated employment in different sectors all play a part in the continuance of a pay gap.4 In 2010, the gender pay gap in the public sector was much lower at 12 per cent than the 21 per cent experienced in the private sector.5 Furthermore, more than 50 per cent of women earn €20,000 or less annually while less than ten per cent of women earn €50,000 or more compared to nearly 20 per cent of men.6
There are no statistics available at a domestic level to monitor the gender pay gap in 2011 and 2012, as the National Employment Survey (NES) was discontinued in 2009, and the new Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS) does not record the gender of employees.7 In 2012, almost 60 per cent of women were employed and almost a third of these women worked part-time compared to a male employment rate of almost 70 per cent of whom fewer than ten per cent worked part-time.8 Since the beginning of the recession there has been an increase in involuntary part-time work and reduction in hours for both women and men but participation rates demonstrate that women ‘have been accepting shorter working hours rather than withdrawing’ from the workforce.9 Even when the statistics are adjusted to take account of the average number of hours worked per week, women’s income is only 94 per cent that of men’s income.10
FLAC urges the Committee to recommend that the State:
Ensure the objective to close the gender pay gap as set out in the National Women’s Strategy is fully supported and implemented.
1 European Commission (2014) Tackling the Gender Pay Gap in the European Union, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the EU, p.10.
2 Government of Ireland (2007) National Women’s Strategy 2007-2016, Dublin: Stationery Office, p.27.
3 SIPTU, ‘Being a mother doesn’t pay’, [press release] 28 February 2013.
4 European Commission (2014) Tackling the Gender Pay Gap in the European Union, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the EU, p.?
5 H. Russell, F. McGinnity and G. Kingston (2014) Gender and the Quality of Work: From Boom to Recession, Dublin: Equality Authority & the Economic Social Research Institute, p.33.
6 Central Statistics Office (2014) Women and Men in Ireland 2013, http://bit.ly/1pBcTtA [accessed 29 September 2014].
7 H. Russell, F. McGinnity and G. Kingston (2014) Gender and the Quality of Work: From Boom to Recession, Dublin: Equality Authority & the Economic Social Research Institute, p.33.
8 European Commission (2012) Report on Progress on equality between women and men in 2012, Brussels: European Commission, p.33.
9 H. Russell, F. McGinnity and G. Kingston (2014) Gender and the Quality of Work: From Boom to Recession, Dublin: Equality Authority & the Economic Social Research Institute, p.35.
10 Central Statistics Office (2011) Women and Men in Ireland, Cork: CSO, p.28.
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