The position of women in employment in terms of pay differentials between them and their male counterparts has improved considerably since the establishment of the former Employment Equality Agency in 1977.
In Ireland the wage differential gap has traditionally been measured by reference to the average hourly earnings of female production workers in manufacturing industry compared with that of their male counterparts. In 1975 the average female wage in this category was 62 per cent of that of their male counterparts. This rose to almost 69 per cent in 1980, and then fluctuated during the early and mid-1980s. The ratio has been gradually improving since then and in 1995 it was over 73 per cent. The latest CSO figures available, which relate to December 1998, show the ratio at 75 per cent.
Under the terms of Partnership 2000, my Department commissioned the ESRI to conduct a follow up study on male/female wage differentials, which was last produced in 1994. The terms of the follow up study include, inter alia, a repeat of the analysis of the 1994 study, an examination of the wage gap, to refine information on the reasons which underlie it and the relative contribution of each underlying reason to the gap, and undertaking comparisons with other EU countries and seeking to identify factors contributing to cross – country differences in wage differentials. Work on the follow up study is nearing completion.