Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 October 2007
183 Deputy Ruairí Quinn asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his plans to ensure full gender pay equality; the reasons his work on this matter to date has failed; the action he is taking within his Department and its agencies to ensure that full gender pay equality exists; if independent surveys have been undertaken of his Department or its agencies on this subject; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18606/07]
View answerLatest data show a very significant decrease in the gender pay gap in Ireland in recent years with a gap of 11 per cent in 2004 and 9 per cent in 2005. These figures compare favourably with a gender pay gap of 22 per cent in Ireland only five years earlier and indicate that steady progress is being made towards the abolition of the gender pay gap.
However, as these are new data series, gathered by Eurostat as part of its annual review of social indicators, they are subject to ongoing quality review and must therefore be treated with some caution at this stage. In addition, the Eurostat calculations exclude part time workers who work fewer than 15 hours per week, a group more likely to comprise lower paid women workers and as a result, the data may be distorted.
Despite these reservations, it is considered that the introduction of the National Minimum Wage would probably have impacted very positively on women's earning capacity and on the narrowing of the gender pay gap. Prior to the introduction of the minimum wage, women were traditionally more likely to receive very low wages, particularly if they were working in the sectors which were predominantly female.
While the narrowing of the gender pay gap cannot be attributed solely to the introduction of the National Minimum Wage, the narrowing is noteworthy. Other positive influences on the narrowing of the gender pay gap include an improvement in maternity leave provision and a much-increased provision of childcare.
However, as the gender pay gap shows, women still earn less than men on average and there are variations in the pay of male and female employees in many economic sectors. It is widely considered that the single biggest factor behind the gender pay gap is the time which women take out of the labour force for child bearing and caring but there are a number of other factors. These include occupational segregation, educational and training differences, promotion policies within firms, availability of childcare, availability of maternity and parental leave and of family-friendly work practices.
Addressing the gender pay gap continues to require a multi-faceted approach across a number of areas. The recently published National Women's Strategy 2007-2016 has put in place a suite of key actions designed to reduce the gender pay gap which will be delivered on a cross departmental basis.
In tandem with these specific actions there are a number of other actions across the Strategy which encompass the broad spectrum of women's lives in relation to socio economic opportunity, the wellbeing of women and engaging women as equal and active citizens which will also contribute to the reduction of the gender pay gap in the coming years. No single survey has been carried out by my Department or its agencies on the subject of the gender pay gap.
