Gender Pay Gap won’t budge until Childcare Crisis tackled
Published: Thursday, September 17, 2026
Ahead of International Equal Pay Day, National Women’s Council calls for action in Budget 2027
Press release, 17 September 2026
Women in Ireland earn almost 10% less than men. One of the chief drivers of this stubborn figure is the lack of affordable and accessible childcare.
Ahead of International Equal Pay Day on 18 September 2026, the Executive Director of the National Women’s Council (NWC), Corrinne Hasson, explains:
“The gender pay gap really begins to bite when a woman has children. We know that many women in today’s Ireland are often forced to cut their hours back, change jobs, or even give up work altogether because they cannot find suitable childcare.
Throwing money at the childcare crisis will not solve this problem, because the lack of places is as significant an issue as the high cost.
What we really need to see is a move towards a new system altogether. A public childcare system would work in much the same way as our primary school system, where every child is guaranteed a place. This system is already a reality in the Nordic countries. There is no reason it cannot be achieved here too.”
Ahead of Budget 2027, NWC is calling on government to start paying educators’ wages. Ms Hasson continued:
“Paying educators, the vast majority of whom are women, a decent wage would make huge inroads towards the government’s election promises of bringing childcare down below €200 a month. It is also a step in the right direction of public childcare, and our vision where every child is guaranteed a place by law.
Men must also be supported and encouraged to take more time to care for their children. Only around half of fathers avail of Paternity leave and a quarter take Parent’s Leave, compared to two-thirds of mothers. The ESRI say that a key cause of this is that these leave entitlements are paid at a flat-rate, rather than being income-related. It is high time for both maternity and paternity leave to be linked to pay, and for the statutory entitlement to paid leave for a family to cover the first year of a child’s life.
The inequalities women face throughout their lives – from low-paid, part-time work on precarious contracts, and the impact of caring responsibilities – are exacerbated in older age, resulting in a gender pension gap of around 35%.”
NWC convenes the Together for Public Alliance which includes 50 organisations who are calling on government to pilot a public childcare model in Budget 2027.
In 2022, the latest year for which figures are available, the CSO identified a gender pay gap of 9.6%.
Ends/
Find here NWC’s Pre-Budget Submission: https://www.nwci.ie/images/uploads/NWC_Budget_Submission_2027_MASTER_final.pdf
For more information, please contact Sinéad Nolan, NWC Senior Communications Coordinator, on sineadn@nwci.ie
Notes:
CSO data on gender pay gap: https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-ses/structureofearningssurvey2022/