‘Women work a month for free’
WOMEN are working an extra month every year free of charge, in comparison to men, due to the gender pay gap, it has been claimed.
The gap is now 14% on average, which means women need to work a year to make the same money as men can earn in 11 months, Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin told the Dáil yesterday.
The gap between the earnings of men and women worsened from 12% in 2002 to 14% last year, according to the most recent figures from the Central Statistics Office.
‘That means women are working for more than a month free of charge compared to men annually,’ Mr Howlin said, perplexed at how the gap has widened in the past decade despite greater awareness.
‘We brought in equal pay legislation in 1974 – a long time ago – but we still await pay parity,’ he added. In the past, this was explained by differences in qualifications between men and women. But today, significantly more young women than men have third-level qualifications, he noted.
He conceded that the gender difference in professions taken up by men and women might explain some of the differences in pay, but said: ‘There is a question, however, about whether we value women’s work as much as we do that of men.’
The Taoiseach said the Government accepted the gender pay gap was unacceptable, unfair and ‘a hallmark of gender inequality in our society’.
Leo Varadkar said pay gaps were not unique to Ireland and exist across the developed world, including in very progressive Nordic countries which had larger pay gaps than here. ‘However, that does not make it in any way acceptable,’ he said, adding: ‘We continue to have a gender pay gap for multiple reasons. One is that more women work on a part-time basis than men, which is often because women are still expected to bear the greater burden of caring in society, including caring for children and older people, and are likely to work part-time as a result.
‘That is not something that is simple to change. It can be changed, however, by providing more subsidised childcare, as we are doing, and by providing paternity benefit to men so that more men take up caring roles.’
Mr Varadkar said there was also gender bias in promotions, which was why the Government was creating 45 women-only posts in the higher-education sector.
He said accelerators need to be implemented so that more women are promoted to lessen the gap, and that a Bill requiring gender pay gap information from companies is rapidly on the way.