Private companies and public sector employers will be compelled to publish the differences between their pay for women and men, under new legislation tabled in the Seanad by the Labour Party.
The government has accepted the private members bill, which will now go forward into the legislative process.
The Labour leader Brendan Howlin has described the gender pay gap as "one of the fundamental issue in the labour market that needs to be addressed".
Mr Howlin was speaking at the launch of a Labour Party Bill on Wednesday afternoon, and went on to suggest that companies should publish all their salaries.
The gender pay gap is nearly 14 per cent in <a class="search" href='javascript:window.parent.actionEventData({$contentId:"7.1213540", $action:"view", $target:"work"})' polopoly:contentid="7.1213540" polopoly:searchtag="tag_location">Ireland</a>, said Bacik
“We need to have a transparent look at how companies operate,” Mr Howlin said. The Labour Bill, which has been accepted by the Government, will only apply to companies with more than 50 employees.
The Bill will be debated in the Seanad on Wednesday evening. It would allow the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission to audit companies and to ensure they publish transparent pay scales, broken down by gender, Labour senator Ivana Bacik said.
The gender pay gap is nearly 14 per cent in Ireland, she said.
Asked if there should be transparency across the board on pay, “not just on gender”, Mr Howlin agreed there should be.
Asked if this should include differential based on ability, he said, “That should all be known. If people are paid very high salaries then that should be a reasoned argument as to why that is the case.”
Asked if companies should have to publish all their salaries, he said it would be “very useful if they did”.
“I don’t think anyone has anything to fear from transparency,” he said.
Senator Ivana Bacik said that is a culture in many workplaces that holds women back. “But in most cases it’s not direct discrimination – it’s not that women are being paid less per hour for the same job. It’s much more these structural barriers, which is why it’s important companies would be enabled to know about gaps where they exist. In most cases employers will be unaware that within their organisation there is such a pay gap between women and men,” she said.
Ms Bacik cited research which showed, she said, “a pay gap at every level – women and men both with PhDs, there’s a pay gap of more than one fifth”.
“It’s something that most people are unaware of and this legislation would simply highlight it and make companies and employers aware of it so we can then all move to redress it together,” she said.
