The Widening Gender Pay Gap in Ireland
The 2020 Gender Pay Gap in Ireland came in at 14.4% — signifying that women in the State are earning 14.4% less than men, comparatively. To represent this salary disparity, Irish Equal Pay Day took place on November 9, in an attempt to illustrate the changing gap in the salaries of men and women in Ireland. The date was chosen to represent the percentage, to demonstrate that in theory, women are working ‘for free’ for the remainder of the year. This date will typically, change year on year in accordance with the current years pay gap. This year saw a half a percent rise in the gap, with the figure in 2019 coming in at 13.9%. This increase saw women earning for a full week less this year compared to last, a surprise to some, who saw the implications of Covid-19 a benefit somewhat to female workers.
Gender Pay Gap Reports
Last year, the Pay Gap Information Bill was introduced as an amendment to the Employment Equality Act, 1998, in order to implement the publishing of data on the pay disparities between the genders in the country in hopes to help address the problem. While it is not yet compulsory for a company to report their figures, some Irish firms are already investing time into projects aimed at revealing the pay gap among employees. PwC is one of the ‘Big 4’ Irish firms leading the way in these publishing’s. The firm is committed to publishing their findings in hopes to shed light on the economic and social benefits of closing the gender pay gap.
Closing the Gap
PwC released a Women in Work Index in March, which takes a look at the gender pay gap within the 33 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) OECD countries. Within this list of countries, Ireland saw the biggest drop in 2020, the reason being largely attributed to the spike in the pay gap, the country falling four spaces. The study completed by PwC stated that just in Ireland, if the gender pay gap were to be closed, female earnings would see a boost of 8%, or US$3 billion. This figure jumps to US$2 trillion across all 33 OECD countries. There is a clear incentive to close to gap in earnings divided by gender, with PwC’s own figures a nod to this fact, coming in for 2020 at 4.7%, down a full percent from the year previous. This is considerably lower than the national average, this year’s figure over three times higher nationally.
Family Planning
One of the major issues affecting gender pay equality is the decision of some couples to start families. It is most often the woman’s career that suffers the most as a result of having a child, many of whom face salary cuts and up skilling upon their return to work, that is of the choose to; many women opting to take on unpaid work, usually in the home. There are many factors that affect this decision, not limited to expensive childcare fees, with Ireland ranking as one of the highest countries to have children cared for in the OECD. Despite there being many ways to juggle and share the responsibility of childrearing, statistically, it is the mother who’s career suffers the most. In data released referencing the pay difference between men and women upon the return to work in the UK, it shows the pay hit that female workers suffer in comparison to their male colleagues. The data showed that upon return to work after the arrival of a baby, men suffer a 0% decrease in salary, whereas women’s salaries dropped 50%. This does take into account women who choose to take on unpaid work and those who are out of the workforce for a prolonged period as a result. Skill is also a factor, as previously mentioned, upon return to work after a long hiatus, employees oftentimes find themselves having to up skill, to keep up with an ever-evolving work place. In Ireland, companies such as Vodafone and Merrill Lynch offer programmes aimed at achieving this goal, and ‘developing Job Readiness.’
Work in the Home is Still Work
As the figures above take into account female employees leaving the professional work force, it is untrue that they are not working, what is more likely, and more accurate is that now they are just not getting financially compensated for their work, and are completing their work in the home.
The data showed that these percentages could be represented by hours also. Despite women spending almost three times as long completing household duties in an average week than men do, as illustrated below, this number is at an all time low, dropping over 20% since 1998, meaning this gap is closing somewhat.
Employment Rate Vs. Role Dispersal
Below is a chart demonstrating the percentage of the population in employment by gender. It is in juxtaposition with the chart below, which looks at role fulfilment of senior positions in 2019. We can see that despite only 16% more men are in the workforce than women, this number actually lower seeing as the population is not split in the middle in Ireland, there being approximately 97.8 males for every 100 females. While this is a thing margin, it still does not explain discrepancy in job opportunity and advancement for women in the country, specifically in senior roles in business, where they find themselves sorely outnumbered and as a result, disproportionately represented.
The Gender Pay Gap and Covid-19
There is an argument that the emergence of remote working has been to the benefit of female workers in particular. SOLAS CEO Andrew Brownlee stated that the ability to work from home in the interim has been a ‘great leveller’, most of the employees taking advantage of the ability to work from home being female. Not to distant future work schedules will see the combination of in person work and at distance signing on, so trends will show whether or not this allows for more women in the virtual workplace. While companies across the country showing up as male dominated, in comparison to tertiary industry employment, meaning theoretically more men could work in the home, potentially fulfilling a role that currently is largely maintained by women, the trend showing increased male involvement in household work or childcare in the home has not yet been identified.
Creator of the WorkEqual organisation and initiative Sonya Lennon, argues that a lot of the problem surrounding the gender pay gap is that men take up more of the high-paying roles in business, as outlined in the previous visualisation, leaving a lot of women to take on part-time roles. Lennon also discussed the difference in the length of the working life between men and women ‘the working life of women lasts, on average, 34 years — compared with 40 years men.’ With women in Ireland having to grapple with a shorter career lifespan and unequal pay for the duration of it, it is unlikely that there will be fill gender pay equality for the women of Ireland any time soon.
