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Gender pay gap at the Central Bank falls to 3.9%, report shows

Data shows gap is driven by a higher proportion of men working at senior levels in the regulator

Men working in the Central Bank were paid 3.9 per cent more than their women colleagues last year on average, according to a new gender pay gap report. Photograph: Alan Betson

Colin Gleeson
Tue Dec 12 2023 - 14:15

Men working in the Central Bank were paid 3.9 per cent more than their women colleagues last year on average, according to a new gender pay gap report.

The gender pay gap is the difference in the average hourly wage of all men and all women in an organisation. It does not imply an absence of equal pay for equal work, which is a legal requirement in Ireland. Instead, it is typically a result of unequal gender representation at different organisational levels.

The Central Bank said its gender pay gap stood at 3.9 per cent as of June 30th in favour of male employees, which was down one percentage point from 4.9 per cent a year earlier.

The gender pay gap in the Republic as a whole was 9.6 per cent last year, according to data compiled by the Central Statistics Office.

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The report also showed that 51 per cent of staff at the regulator are men, while 49 per cent are women.

The median gender pay gap, which measures the midpoint between the highest and lowest salaries, is 0.5 per cent, also in favour of male employees. This means that for every €1 a male staff member receives, a woman employee receives 99.5 cent.

The Central Bank said its gender pay gap is driven by a variety of factors, including the representation of men and women in each job grade, length of service, time at grade and the distribution of overtime and allowances.

A closer look at the data shows that the gender pay gap is driven by a higher proportion of men in the upper half of the group’s pay bands, while women hold the majority of roles in the lower paid job grades.

Men account for almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of those ranked as head of division and 57 per cent of the senior leadership team, as well as dominating in the technical and general band, where they account for 81 per cent of posts.

As in previous years, woman are more strongly represented in both the bank executive (58 per cent) and bank officer (58 per cent) bands.

In terms of part-time employees, the Central Bank said its mean hourly gender pay gap is 15.8 per cent in favour of men, while the median gap is 12.3 per cent in their favour.

The mean gap for temporary contract employees again favours men, by 1.4 per cent while the median gap is 2.7 per cent in favour of women.

When it comes to benefit in kind, women were more likely to be recipients, with 19.2 per cent of women employees availing of some benefit in kind compared to 15.8 per cent of men.

The report said it is “clear that ... gender representation at higher levels is the key driver of our gender pay gap”.

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson is an Irish Times reporter

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