What is the Gender Pay Gap?

What is the Gender Pay Gap?

The Gender Pay Gap refers to the difference in the average hourly pay of women compared to men in a particular organisation and is designed to capture the extent to which women are evenly represented across an organisation.  

What is the Gender Pay Gap Information Action 2021?

The Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 (the Act) places reporting and publication obligations on both private and public sector employers.

Who has to report?

For the first two years only employers with 250 or more employees will have to report, in the third year the threshold reduces to 150, and after three years the Regulations will apply to employers with 50 or more employees.  

What is the deadline for reporting?

The Regulations require organisations with over 250 employees to report on their gender pay gap in 2022 by reference to their employees on a snapshot date in June 2022. The deadline for publication of the employer’s gender pay gap information is 6 months after their chosen snapshot date. Thereafter reporting will be annual.

What are the consequences of not reporting?

The Act provides the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission with the power to make an application to the Circuit Court or to the High Court for the granting of an order requiring the employer concerned to comply with the Regulations. Employees may also refer a complaint that their employer has failed to comply with their reporting obligations to the Workplace Relations Commission. 

What sort of things have to be reported?

Organisations will need to disclose the pay differences between male and female employees, data across a range of working arrangements including part-time and temporary contracts, the proportion of male and female employees who receive benefits in kind and bonuses, and the number of male and female employees across four pay bands. Employers will additionally have to set out reasons for, and measures they plan to take to reduce, the gender pay gap.  

Who will the report be available to?

Employers must publish their gender pay gap report on their public website for at least three years, or a physical copy of the report must be available for inspection by employees and the public, during normal business hours. The Government plans to develop an online reporting system for the 2023 reporting cycle consisting of a central portal where employer reports can be uploaded and accessed publicly. 

Where can I find more information on Gender Pay Gap reporting?

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has published a guidance note and an FAQ document for employers, which provide information on the required calculations.