Earlier this year gender pay gap reporting became a mandatory exercise for larger companies in Ireland.

Currently in Ireland we have a gender pay gap of around 14%. Women are the ones losing out in this statistic.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is the professional body for human resources (HR). Its director, Mary Connaughton, says: “In June of this year, companies with 250 or more employees had to set a date on which they were going to measure their gender pay gap – it was called a snapshot date. And within six months, they have to produce their gender pay gap report, which means they have to produce it in December 2022.

“The legislation requires them to report on the gap between men and women in relation to hourly pay, in relation to bonuses and in relation to benefits in kind,” Mary says.

Part-time and temporary contracts are also included in the report.

“There is quite a lot of technical information that has to be pulled together within an organisation to be able to produce the range of figures that legislation requires,” says Mary.

She goes on to explain the figures are taken from the previous 12 months up to June 2022 and the final calculation is the average hourly pay a person receives.

Guidelines

The Government has given guidelines to reporting and the following is its example for those confused about who to count as employees during the 12-month period.

Here’s an example scenario: on the snapshot date, the organisation has 250 full-time employees and 60 parttime employees. Of this number, 30 are on leave of various kinds. Ten staff are on career break - 10 have been on career break for over 12 months. Ten staff are on paid maternity leave; five on unpaid maternity leave. Five staff are on the payroll but on secondment to other organisations. The headcount on the snapshot date is 300 (250+60 = 310, less 10 on career break for over 12 months). As this is 250 or greater, this organisation is obliged to report its gender pay gap in 2022 (information obtained from gov.ie).

What is to stop companies from making their companies look more favourable in the report?

The reports should be produced in good faith but there are a number of ways in which they can be challenged and investigated.

“The legislation requires companies to put their gender pay gap reports onto their website,” says Mary.

“If an employee believes their employer is not complying – for example, if the information wasn’t correct – they can take the complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission and there it will be investigated,” she explains. “Also the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission here in Ireland can apply for a court order, forcing a company to comply properly.

“There is also power in the legislation to have investigators to go in and check how well an employer has prepared the information and it’s accuracy,” she adds.

What will it tell us?

What will all this information being collated by companies tell us? How might it be used?

In the future there will be an accessible Government database to store the reports, but it is not available this year. Also, next year companies with 150 or more employees will be included in the reports and from 2025 onwards it will be all companies with 50 or more employees.

When the reports are produced, employers must also write a commentary about their gender pay gap and what actions they are going to take to close it.

“They have to come up with a number of action points around what actions they are going to take to try to close the gender pay gap,” says Mary.

Why does it exist?

An example of why there might be a pay gap in an organisation is that there may be more men in senior roles than women, so there will be an onus on companies to try and fill those positions with more women.

But, of course, it is not always as simple as that. Some companies might have more manufacturing roles or service-based roles which are preferred by a particular gender. The reports are for companies to identify where those gaps are and investigate what they can do about it.

The fact remains if you are a company with 250 or more employees you need to get your report in order, the clock is ticking.

There is plenty of information available on how to compile the report on the government. CIPD also has a sample pay gap report available on its website (cipd.ie).

Working hours definition

“Working hours” means the hours when a relevant employee is available, or required to be available, at or near his or her place of employment for the purposes of working, but does not include the hours when the relevant employee is asleep, notwithstanding that the relevant employee, by arrangement, sleeps at or near his or her place of employment and the relevant employer provides suitable sleeping facilities for that relevant employee.

Ordinary pay includes:

  • The normal salary paid to the employee.
  • Allowances.
  • Any overtime payments.
  • Pay for piecework.
  • Shift premium pay.
  • Pay for sick leave.
  • Any salary top-ups for statutory leaves like maternity leave/paternity leave/parent’s leave.
  • Pay for gardening leave.
  • (ref gov.ie)

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