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National Women’s Council of Ireland and SIPTU call for action on the Gender Pay Gap in Ireland on E

Published: Thursday, March 01, 2012

Press Release

The Gender pay gap in Ireland is 17.1% according to a new publication launched by the EU Commission on the Gender Pay Gap today. Young women earn more than 90% of male wages but this falls to 71.5% in the 35-44 age and to only 61.4% group for women aged 55-64yrs. In Ireland only 123,000 women earn more than 50,000 per year in comparison to 254,000 men.

There are a number of reasons for the Gender Pay Gap, including the discrimination against women, undervaluing of women's work and skills, the low number of women in senior and leadership positions and the fact that women continue to have the primary responsibility for care in our society.

'In order to achieve equality for women in Ireland, the gap between women's and men's earning needs to be reduced, this means putting place family friendly policies, subsidised childcare provision to address the imbalance of care responsibilities in Ireland and ensuring that women are fully represented in senior positions in all areas of society' stated Ms Orla O' Connor Acting CEO of the National Women's Council of Ireland. 'As the Government persists with its austerity measures it is vital that actions to improve the position of women in our society are not side-lined' she continued.

"Working women in Ireland are more likely to work in low paid and precarious work than men. Women comprise the overwhelming majority of workers in the low pay sectors covered by Employment Regulation Orders. We need to ensure that the new legislation governing these sectoral agreements is sufficiently robust to protect these vulnerable workers. Otherwise the wage gap between women and men will get even wider' stated Ethel Buckley, National Equality and Campaigns Organiser SIPTU

Today the European Commission has said that 'gender equality is key for achieving employment growth, competitiveness and economic recovery. It is vital that equality is not undermined as cuts are made across the labour market.' The Irish Government need to take act on this message.