The cabinet recently approved legislation proposed by Justice and Equality Minister, Charlie Flanagan to introduce gender pay gap reporting.

The bill is proposing that employers in both the public and private sectors will be required to report on their gender pay data. The threshold is starting at organisations with over 250 employees, however, this will reduce over time to employers with just 50 employees.

Employers will have to report on the differences in hourly pay and also on information in relation to differences in bonus pay, part-time pay, pay of men and women on temporary contracts and the differences in pay by reference to job classification.

There is no timeframe as of yet of when this bill will be signed into legislation however, it is likely that it could be through in the next number of months.

Gender pay gap reporting is already legislated for in the UK, and it reports that women are being paid a median hourly rate that, on average is 9.7% less than their male colleagues. EU figures show that women in Ireland currently earn around 13.9% less than men. Other countries which already legislative for gender pay reporting are Iceland, Australia, Germany, and Belgium.

Rather than just looking at the just percentage rate, there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration in order to work towards closing the gender pay gap, such as affordable childcare, more family-friendly practices such as shared parental leave and also positive initiatives to increase women in more senior roles.

It would be advisable for employers that meet the threshold, start to gather relevant information in order to be able to accurately report on their pay data.

If you have any questions in relation to Gender Pay Gap reporting, please don’t hesitate to contact the team on 1890 253 369