Examinations by SiliconRepublic.com of some of the gender pay gap reports by tech companies based in Ireland found that many said they were trying to address the low numbers of women in the sector
An analysis of the gender pay gap reports of up to 500 companies in Ireland has found that there is a mean gender pay gap of 12.6pc.
The analysis was carried out by PwC Ireland. It looked at companies that published their gender pay gap reports in December 2022.
As the report states, the reasons for the gap vary but a key factor is the higher number of men working in certain sectors. The proportion of women to men tends to be lowest in the engineering, construction, manufacturing and technology sectors.
Examinations by SiliconRepublic.com of some of the gender pay gap reports by tech companies based in Ireland found that many said they were trying to address the low numbers of women in the sector.
Many companies acknowledged that there was a low proportion of women in leadership and highly paid roles, which exacerbated the gender pay gap.
PwC’s analysis found that the average proportion of women in the workforce in Ireland is 45pc.
The healthcare and retail sectors have a much higher ratio of women to men compared to the tech and engineering sectors, according to PwC’s report.
Almost half (48pc) of the companies surveyed disclosed a gender pay gap above the most recent national average of 11.3pc.
A majority (82pc) of companies that pay staff a bonus disclosed a bonus gap in favour of men.
The mean hourly bonus gap is estimated to be 22.9pc, which was approximately 1.8 times the size of the reported mean hourly pay gap.
The reason the bonus gap is higher than the mean pay gap is because of the tendency for men to have more highly paid, leadership roles.
Varies by company and sector
“Although the exact reason for a gender pay gap varies by company and sector, a key factor appears to be the relatively high number of males in more senior (and so, more highly paid) roles,” said Doone O’Doherty, who is a partner at PwC Ireland’s people and organisation division.
“Looking at disclosures on pay quartiles, three-quarters of companies appear to show a higher relative proportion of men in the ‘highest paid’ quartile,” O’Doherty added.
“The more males a company has in these top quartiles relative to the number of females, the higher that company’s pay gap is likely to be.”
Irish companies with 250 employees or more have been required by law to report their gender pay gap data. The first deadline for reporting was December 2022.
Companies will be required to file their 2023 gender pay gap reports in December 2023, based on their snapshot data from June 2023.
Smaller organisations with 150 or more employees will have to report their gender pay gaps from 2024 onwards.
“This transparency is to be welcomed, as is the focus that many companies are putting on closing the gender pay and bonus gap,” said O’Doherty.
She added that this will be a considerable challenge, particularly for those in sectors with large gaps. “Progress will require a concerted effort that is enabled by HR, but led by business leaders, to make active changes to improve the representation of women in their businesses.”
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