New legislation being drafted by the European Commission will oblige large companies to publish details of their gender pay gaps.

The draft directive would see firms with more than 250 employees publishing annual pay gap stats, which would cover bonuses and benefits as well as core pay. The legislation will also compel firms to reveal the proportion of men and women in each pay band.

Under the proposed rules, employers would be prohibited from asking interviewees about their pay history. And they would have to inform job applicants about pay ranges prior to any job interview.

The laws would extend to smaller firms as well, although they would not be required to make the information public. Instead, they would have to provide the information to employees on request.

Ireland currently has a pay gap of 14.4%, according to Eurostat figures.

Fórsa’s equality officer Andy Pike said that the proposed directive would be a step forward to eliminate pay secrecy, but there was a lot of work to be done still.

“The directive calls on firms to publish data on their differences, but it falls short of proposing proactive methods to tackle the gap. It does little to call on employers to actively take steps to reduce the gaps or equip firms with the necessary skills and tools to combat the issue.

“The announcement by Minister O’Gorman to further our own domestic bill is welcome, but as with the EU legislation, attention must be paid to measures to tackle the gap. Transparency alone around the issue is not enough.

There is a real opportunity now for trade unions to be part of this conversation and make use of collective bargaining to devise and implement restorative measures,” he said.

The legislation says a company-wide pay assessment would be triggered if average pay differences of 5% or more were reported. This could lead to filing of compensation claims in the courts. But decisions on fines or penalties would be at the discretion of national authorities, with input from equality bodies and employee organisations.

At present, 13 EU countries have binding pay transparency rules in place. If the bill is agreed by the bloc’s 27 members, it would have to be drafted into national law within two years.

Meanwhile, Irish equality minister Roderic O’Gorman has said he was committed to enacting the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill “as early as possible.” Earlier this week he said he would bring amendments to Cabinet in the next fortnight.

The Bill, which would place requirements on employers to reveal pay gap information, was first published in 2019. But little was done to further its progression.

Read the European Commission proposals HERE.

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