Companies could soon be forced to reveal the pay gap between male and female workers

IRISH COMPANIES ARE being urged to embrace new rules that could potentially lead to them being forced to publish the size of gender pay gaps in their organisations.

The new programme for government, published this week, includes a commitment to “promote wage transparency by requiring companies of 50 or more to complete a wage survey”.

The inclusion is part of several measures that seek to reduce the existing pay gap between male and female workers. Recent research showed the wage differential between the sexes had closed in Ireland, however it still stood at more than 14% for managerial roles.

While it is not clear what form the new Irish transparency rules will take – or when they will be introduced – a similar scheme was introduced in the UK earlier this year.

There, all companies made up of 250 or more people are required to submit salary and bonus details for their male and female staff.

Around 8,000 UK-based employers will have to publish their average pay and bonus gap between genders, the results of which will be posted in a league table from 2018 onwards.

Louise Glennon, from the National Women’s Council of Ireland, said the move was “just one step towards the wage equality we campaign for.

“One of the most significant issues for us would be the undervaluing of women’s work within the sectors in which they dominate.”

The government is yet to give further details of what form the Irish initiative could take, but Glennon said the NWCI would also welcome the publication of gender pay gap league tables in the Republic.

“It’s positive, even as a regular reminder from government that there needs to be wage transparency, and we would encourage companies not to fear this and to embrace it.”

The two-year lead-in time for the UK proposals is designed to give companies a chance to address pay imbalances before the league table is published.

Written by Rónán Duffy and posted on TheJournal.ie