New campaign’s call for gender wage equality
WOMEN in Ireland are effectively working for free for the last 52 days of this year due to the current gender pay gap of 14.4%.
Dublin Lord Major Hazel Chu, Senator Ivana Bacik and joint chairs of the Workequal Oireachtas group are all getting involved in a new bid to combat the gender pay- gap.
The campaign is running a series of online events and awareness- raising activities focused on improving the divide.
A video released today on Equal Pay Day features politicians from across all parties and aims to inspire change that will improve Ireland’s standing in regards to pay equality.
Sony a Lennon, founder of the Workequal campaign, said: “There are multiple, complex factors that contribute to the gender pay gap. These include fewer women in senior or higher - earning roles and more women working part- time.
“While the pay gap is a somewhat blunt tool and it must be remembered that it is a symptom of deeper issues, it is effective in proving that, across the workforce, women persistently earn less than men.
“Equal Pay Day – and the Workequal campaign overall–is about highlighting and challenging the reasons for this. Ireland has made progress on gender equality in recent years, but we still have a long way to go.
“The latest Index from the European Institute for Gender Equality gives us a score of 72.2 out of 100. It shows gender inequalities in Ireland are most pronounced in the domain of power, where we score only 55.8 points.
“Our need for effective and affordable public childcare is highlighted stark ly in the Index findings, which show the gender gap is much wider between women and men in couples with children than in couples without children.
“The full-time equivalent employment rate for women is only 45%, compared to 61% for men. And the working life of women in Ireland lasts, on average, 34 years – compared with 40 years for men.
“All of this means women are not yet on an equal footing – economically, socially or politically – with men. This needs to change.”