A GROUP REPRESENTING Irish employers has lodged a submission with the Department of Justice in advance of tomorrow’s budget calling for a ‘comprehensive’ approach to gender pay reporting.
Ibec, the group in question, says it ‘supports the objective of addressing barriers to the socio-economic equality of genders in Ireland’.
The issue of a gender-pay gap, and gender equality in general in the workplace, has been a hot topic issue in recent times with the revelation that significant gaps exist in pay levels between genders at state broadcaster RTÉ, among other examples.
Ibec’s submission, which can be read in full here, proposes using a reporting tool similar to the Australian model of gender pay reporting (which would first see such reporting introduced to larger companies of greater than 250 employees, before bringing smaller employers into the fold).
It adds that ‘significant interventions’ are required in Ireland’s education system and teacher training to address issues like gender stereotyping and role-modelling.
It adds that ‘societal focus on the role of gender stereotypes and norms which influence the roles women and men hold in our country needs to occur if we are to further challenge the work and non-work opportunities available to all’.
The submission also focuses on the issue of affordable childcare as being ‘essential’ to the rectification of gender pay imbalances.
“We believe that gender pay gap reporting, if conducted using an appropriate method that takes into account the size and scale of a business, has the potential to offer a real diagnostic tool to highlight the issue,” said Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy.
In addition to gender pay gap reporting, we believe that a whole-of-society approach to the issue of gender pay and gender balance is needed.
Reporting alone will not identify or solve the myriad of structural, cultural and policy causes for the differences in participation rates and the employment gaps between genders.
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