This year’s Most Attractive Employers list by Universum yielded good news for Big Tech employers, but very bad news for women in IT.
New data released today (13 October) by employer brand company Universum, shows that the gender pay gap in Ireland is highest among IT professionals.
On average, men working in IT earned €62,874 per annum, while women earned an average of €50,839. This represents a gap of €12,035.
The overall gender pay gap across all sectors in Ireland is 16pc, with men earning an average of €54,347 per annum, while women earn an average of €45,760 per annum.
These findings were released as part of Universum’s Most Attractive Employers index 2022, which ranks the most popular employers in Ireland. Research conducted among 10,433 professionals across various different sectors between October 2021 and April 2022.
People from the business, engineering, IT, natural sciences, humanities, law and medicine sectors were all involved.
Commenting on the findings, Steve Ward, UK and Ireland business director at Universum, said, “The research shows worrying discrepancies between male and female salaries, with the pay gap starting among those just entering the workforce and ending up highest among those aged 56 and older.
“If, as a society, we are to start addressing the gender pay gap in a serious way, it’s crucial that employers act to ensure parity of remuneration amongst the sexes for similar roles, notwithstanding employee negotiation skills at interview stage, and support women to progress in the same way as their male counterparts throughout their careers.”
Earlier this year, Universum, which is part of IrishJobs, published data on the most attractive employers among students. Irish engineering and IT students placed high value on working with Google, Microsoft, Apple and Intel.
Like their student counterparts, the Irish professionals surveyed by Universum also rated tech multinationals very highly as employers.
Google has maintained its first place ranking among business and economics professionals this year, while also coming second place among IT professionals. It placed fifth among engineering professionals.
Apple and Microsoft also featured in the top 10 among IT, engineering and economics professionals.
Intel came in at second place among engineering professionals, outranked by Pfizer. The pharma company also took the top slot among natural sciences workers, with Glanbia following in second.
This year saw semi-state bodies and civil service employers perform well, with new entrant An Post ranking as ninth top employer for IT professionals.
The tech employers who made the greatest gains in terms of popularity this year were Oracle, Dell Technologies and Activision Blizzard.
10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.
