Women's earnings in industry remain almost 30 per cent below men's, and the gap is widening, according to the latest figures.
A study of the gender gap in earnings in four sectors of the Irish economy was presented to an international conference in Dublin yesterday.
Co-hosted by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the conference discussed strategies to address this gap in the retail sector, IT and electronics, food and local government across four EU states. The Irish study, prepared by Indecon consultants, showed that overall 21.8 per cent of men in employment are in management positions, compared with 11.8 per cent of women.
There is also a substantial pay gap between recent male and female graduates. In the retail sector, which is heavily dominated by females, male workers earn more both hourly and weekly.
Women are much more likely to work part-time in this sector, and 16.9 per cent are lone parents, which the consultants conclude contributes to their part-time hours and to the fact that they are less likely to seek promotion. In the IT and electronic area there are more male employees, and again they earn more than females, with the gap varying between 11 and 28 per cent. Again, there is a higher incidence of part-time working among women, who tend to be younger, and less represented in management positions. In the food sector similar patterns emerge, with women earning on average 20 per cent an hour less than men. Again, they are less likely to be in management positions, although they are likely to have higher educational attainments than their male co-workers.
In local government, which, unlike the other sectors is highly unionised and has clearly defined pay scales and career progression, the gender gap persists.
Over half of the female employees (51.8 per cent) earned less than €30,000, compared to 34.8 per cent of men. Women are badly represented in senior management grades, with female representation varying between nought and 26.7 per cent. A proactive approach is needed to ensure that the full potential of the economy's labour resources is utilised, according to the report. The measures proposed by Indecon to address the continuing gap are similar in all four sectors.
They include the promotion of equality reviews and gender audits, the introduction of programmes to encourage a greater proportion of women to seek senior management positions, programmes to improve the educational qualifications of women in certain sectors, and to reintegrate them into the workforce following absence due to child-rearing, and flexible working arrangements.
In areas like food and local government, they suggested increasing access to external candidates seeking careers.