The Gender Pay Gap Bill will be debated by the Seanad today

by

Today, the Seanad will debate the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2017.

If made into law, the Bill would require organisations with more than 50 employees to publish regular wage surveys aimed at measuring their internal Gender Pay Gaps.

'The EU figures show that in Ireland, women currently earn around 13.9 per cent less than men – better than the equivalent gap in the UK, where the difference is 19.5 per cent, but still impacting significantly on women’s careers and incomes,' wrote Labour Party Senator Ivana Bacik in her column for The Journal.

'Put another way, that figure equates to women in full time employment working for free in Ireland for about one month of every year.'

'Following the introduction of European pay equality directives, we passed equal pay legislation in Ireland more than forty years ago, in 1974, yet women still have not achieved anything close to pay parity with our male colleagues.'

The bill will be brought to Seanad attention today to be discussed by the Government. 

'Labour understands that there is a range of factors, including the issue of unconscious bias, which contributes to gender inequality in the workplace,' commented spokesperson on Children and Youth Affairs, Jan O’Sullivan.

Trending