Recent statistics for gross earnings and hours of work of industrial workers (adult rates) indicate that the average female hourly earnings in manufacturing industry is approximately 70 per cent of average male hourly earnings.
The existence of such a gap between the earnings of female and male workers in industrial employment indicates the persistence of inequalities between men and women in this employment area. The extent to which this arises from difficulties in defining work of equal value has not been adequately established. Factors contributing to this gap include not only differing occupational patterns as between men and women but also differing work organisation patterns and remuneration systems.
While the disparity in the male-female earnings shown is a problem in industrial work where many women find themselves in low pay areas and confined to a restricted range of jobs the exent of any disparity in male-female earnings for other sectors is not as clear.
I have noted the acknowledgment in the Report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women of the body of expertise built up by equality officers and the Labour Court in the evaluation of different jobs using sex-neutral factors in the application of equal pay law. I consider that this is an important factor of our adjudication process.
In an effort to determine the reasons for differentials in the earnings of male and female workers across employment sectors the former Department of Labour, in conjunction with the Employment Equality Agency, commissioned research by the ESRI. I hope this work will be completed later this year and that it will provide a valuable insight into problems of unequal pay.
I must stress that finding the solution to the differential in pay between men and women does not lie in equal pay legislation alone but in improved access for women to a wider range of jobs. Nevertheless there are a number of changes I am proposing to make to the provisions of Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act, 1974 and the Employment Equality Act, 1977, in the context in the general review of the employment equality legislation. These include provision for the removal of requirements that employees claiming equal pay must be employed in the same place of work or contemporaneously with the comparator cited.