A gender pay gap "stubbornly persists" nearly 30 years after equal pay legislation came into effect, a conference was told yesterday. Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent, reports.
Delegates heard that women's pay rates in Ireland are about 15 per cent behind those of men, a wider gap than exists in most EU states.
Single women tend to be the lowest earners and married men the highest, delegates were also told. Research indicated that the pay gap between these two groups was 25 per cent.
The conference in Dublin was organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, to coincide with international women's day. As part of the event, ICTU published a toolkit for union negotiators, which included a report on why women's pay continues to lag behind that of men.
A "major source of concern", the report said, was that the gap had actually widened in some areas. It cited an Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) report which found that in the hotels and restaurants sector women's pay, as a percentage of men's, fell between 1997 and 2000. "This indicates that market forces and the supply of labour from abroad hit those at the lower end of the pay scale most, and as these are predominantly female, it adversely affects the gap," the ICTU report said.
The same ESRI research, published in 2002, had highlighted big disparities in pay between single and married people. Single women earned five per cent less than single men, married women earned 19 per cent less than married men and single women earned 25 per cent less than married men. While the figures might surprise some people, there were underlying reasons for the gap, the report said. These included the fact that women tended to be employed in low-paid sectors.
Another reason for the gap was that women were more likely to have breaks in their working lives, which had a "major effect" on average wages.
"Gaps in service also lead to pay penalties in the future in relation to promotion, overtime, long service awards or other pay bonuses."
While "blatant discrimination" involving separate wage rates for men and women doing the same job was becoming rarer, some women continued to be underpaid for doing the same job as men, the report added.
Dr Helen Russell, a research officer with the ESRI, told the conference that the pay gap was wider in the private than in the public sector. It was also wider between men and women who had either no or low educational qualifications. The gap narrowed for men and women who had third-level degrees.
Ms Clare Treacy, director of organisation and social policy with the Irish Nurses' Organisation, said only 9 per cent of nurses in Ireland were male, yet men occupied 15 per cent of senor nursing posts. About 40 per cent of psychiatric nurses were male, yet 29 of the 33 senior management posts were held by men. "Male culture is very, very dominant in the health service," she said.
President warns of curbs on women in workforce: page 19