Gender’s not an issue

MUCH has been said and written in recent days about the apparent ‘gender pay gap’ at RTÉ. Large parts of that, it must be said, stem from the fact that one RTÉ employee, newsreader Sharon Ní Bheoláin, is paid less than her colleague Bryan Dobson.

Lest we forget, however, the director general of RTÉ is female, as is the chair of the RTÉ board. It has championed female presenters such as Marian Finucane, Miriam O’Callaghan and Claire Byrne. So it would be hard to allege that there is no place for successful women in Montrose.

Moreover, there is a broader issue here: not every employee should be paid the same… because not every employee does the same work with the same outcome. Bryan Dobson is more experienced than Ms Ní Bheoláin; he is widely regarded as the senior partner of the two. RTÉ has every right to pay him more.

Equally, we would expect Ms Ní Bheoláin to be paid more than a less experienced anchor such as Ray Kennedy. Then there are other factors: how likely is it that an employee might be poached? How hard would it be to replace them? Would another employee achieve the same workplace results?

What resources are actually available to the employer? What job security does the employee have?

The danger is that we lose sight of the fact that merit, not gender or background, should be what matters when it comes to salary. People who work harder or deliver better results should expect to earn more than their peers, regardless of sex. Otherwise why bother working hard?

It is heartening therefore that the Taoiseach has today endorsed this principle. Yes, in the rare event that a man and woman have the exact same experience, and perform the exact same work for the same hours with the exact same results, their pay should be equal: in every other instance, however, those who achieve more should be paid more. It really is as simple as that.