Tánaiste urged to act on gender pay gap
by Lughan Deane
 |
IMPACT has written to Tánaiste and equality minister Frances Fitzgerald seeking new laws to require employers to reveal the gender pay gap in their organisations. The call comes after similar legislation was published in the UK, where it is set to come into effect in April.
In a letter to minister Fitzgerald, IMPACT official Geraldine O’Brien acknowledged the Programme for Government commitment to “take measures to reduce the gender pay gap,” including by requiring companies with more than 50 staff to undertake wage surveys. But she said this was “not sufficiently ambitious” given the scale of the challenge.
On average, women in Ireland earn 14% less than men. IMPACT says that requiring employers to reveal their record would increase the incentive to address the gender pay gap.
Geraldine said the union was calling on the Government to take decisive action on this important issue. “Specifically, we are calling for the introduction of regulations similar to those recently introduced in the UK. These regulations would require employers of a certain size to publish, rather than simply collect, data on the mean and median gaps in pay between their male and female employees,” she said.
Read the UK regulations here.
|
|
