Many of Ireland's major employers fear revealing gender pay gaps will hurt their reputation
It is expected that organisations will have to publicly report the figures in the near future.
MORE THAN TWO-THIRDS of companies in Ireland are concerned about the ‘reputational risks’ of gender pay-gap reporting.
This is according to a survey by consultancy firm Mercer, which showed that 67% of the major employers polled are worried about the potential negative impact of mandatory disclosures.
The survey also shows that more than one-third of the firms believe they will perform worse than Ireland’s average pay-gap figure.
Nevertheless, nearly three-quarters of companies agree with the principle of gender pay gap reporting and the majority think it will have a positive impact on their businesses.
Mercer surveyed 67 large organisations in Ireland for the report. The firms employ more than 110,000 people in total.
Pay gap reporting
The gender pay gap is different from equal pay for the same job. It is measured by taking the differences between men and women’s earning across an entire company, and is commonly affected by factors such as firms having male-dominated senior ranks.
John Mercer, career leader at Mercer Ireland, said that gender pay gap reporting is a “complex area”.
“Although pay programmes may cause gender pay gap issues, most of the gap is caused by the lack of career progression for women and the work and types of roles that women are more likely to do.
“Furthermore, unconscious bias based on cultural attitudes about the roles of men and women in society plays a part.”
UK data
Mandatory gender pay gap reporting rules were introduced in the UK last year. These required all companies in the country with over 250 employees to submit data on how much their male and female staff members earn.
These figures were made public ahead of a national deadline last month, with some companies reporting significant gaps. Ryanair paid its male staff 67% more per hour on average, while at JP Morgan the figure was 36%.
It is expected that companies in Ireland will also be required to report on their gender pay gaps by the end of this year as draft legislation is due to be brought to the Oireachtas in the coming weeks.
The overall gender pay gap in Ireland currently stands at 13.9%, below the EU average of 16.7% and the UK rate of 18.4%.
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