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The Minister for Justice and Equality, Mr Charlie Flanagan TD, and the Minister of State for Equality, Immigration and Integration, Mr David Stanton TD, today (Tuesday) announced the publication of the General Scheme of the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill which was approved by the Cabinet today.
This significant Bill will provide that employers with a certain number of employees (which will be set at 50 or more after an initial period of operation for bigger firms) must publish information on the gender pay gap in their firm.
Minister Flanagan said:
"This government is committed to gender equality. Both the Programme for Government and our Second National Strategy for Women and Girls commits to wage transparency measures to tackle the gender pay gap. In this significant year, the centenary of women’s voting rights, I am pleased, along with Minister Stanton, to bring forward these legislative proposals.
"The gender pay gap has rightly attracted increased attention in recent times both in Ireland and internationally. While Ireland compares relatively well with the rest of the EU as regards the size of the gender pay gap – 13.9% compared with an EU 28 figure of 16.7% in 2014 – put simply, we want gender equality in Ireland and we are committed to tackling the gender pay gap. These pay transparency measures are part of a wider package of measures to promote gender equality."
Minister Flanagan added:
"In formulating these proposals, we have consulted widely and taken on board much that emerged from the public consultation that Minister Humphreys, Minister Stanton and I hosted last year. I look forward to further consultations and a good debate in the Houses of the Oireachtas. I want to acknowledge the support of the Opposition for wage transparency measures and the work of Senator Ivana Bacik in particular."
Notable elements of the General Scheme of the Bill are:
Minister Stanton continued:
"This is an important measure to help reduce the gender pay gap by publishing information about it at the firm level, thus furnishing a deeper insight into the causes of the gap and facilitating employers in addressing it.
"It is not by itself a sufficient response to the problem of the gender pay gap and needs to be supplemented by measures in increase the number of women in better-paid roles and occupations, improved childcare provision, dealing with gender stereotypes, more women in decision making and so on. Actions in these areas are being pursued in the framework of the National Strategy for Women and Girls 2017-2020."
The General Scheme will now be published and submitted to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality for pre-legislative scrutiny.
ENDS
The Programme for a Partnership Government includes a commitment to contribute to addressing the gender pay gap and to promoting wage transparency by requiring companies of 50 and more employees to complete a wage survey.
This is reflected in Action 1.23 of the National Strategy for Women and Girls which is:
"To promote wage transparency by requiring companies of 50 or more employees to complete a wage survey periodically and report the results.”
A public consultation was launched in August last by Minister Flanagan and Minister Stanton on measures to address the gender pay gap. It resulted in 38 written submissions. A summary of the submissions has been published on www.genderequality.ie which also contains a compilation of all submissions.
A successful symposium was hosted on 10 January by Ministers Flanagan, Stanton and Humphreys and attended by well over 100 people. The symposium was addressed by both Ministers, Minister Stanton, an official of the European Commission, academics and other experts, and representatives of the social partners, civil society, and professional bodies.
There have been further, more recent, meetings with Ibec and ICTU and the National Women’s Council to discuss this measure.
Pay transparency legislation has been adopted in a number of countries with a view to combating the gender pay gap. Examples are Britain, France, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Iceland and Australia.