The persistent gender pay gap means that women have to work the equivalent of 67 extra days each year to earn the same as their average male counterparts, according to Fórsa official Geraldine O’Brien. Ireland’s gender pay gap currently stands at 14%.
Speaking at a recent Oireachtas committee hearing, Geraldine also highlighted the paucity of women in top jobs. “If an equal number of men and women started work at the same time, only 24% of women will progress to senior management level,” she said.
The hearing came as new figures revealed that just 28% of local authority chief executives are women, prompting Fórsa to reiterate its concerns about the failure to address the gender imbalance in top local government posts.
If an equal number of men and women started work at the same time, only 24% of women will progress to senior management level.
Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy, who got the statistics through a parliamentary question, said the figure was below the 30% minimum requirement for political parties’ Dáil candidates.
Peter Nolan, the head of Fórsa’s local government and municipal employees’ divisions, said there has been a continuous failure to address the number of women at director of service, senior administrative, and senior engineer grades.
“We need to examine why women are not going forward for promotion to critical management positions,” he said. Peter added that efforts to prevent access to family-friendly policies in some local authorities was helping to entrench gender imbalance in the sector.
New figures revealed that just 28% of local authority chief executives are women, prompting Fórsa to reiterate its concerns about the failure to address the gender imbalance in top local government posts.
Geraldine was part of an ICTU delegation that last week gave evidence to the Joint Commission for Justice and Equality, which is discussing the general scheme of the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill. The bill would establish mandatory reporting by employers on the gender pay gap in their organisation. The measure would first be applied in firms with 250 or more employees, but that threshold would drop to 50-plus over time.
The legislation would also require reporting on differences in bonus pay, part-time pay and the pay of men and women on temporary contracts.
Fórsa has been at the forefront of the trade union campaign for legislation on gender pay gap reporting, which it says would encourage employers into tangible action to bridge the gap.
Unions have welcomed proposed legislation on mandatory reporting of gender pay gaps in individual enterprises despite concerns that the 250 employee threshold is too high.