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Background Notes

CSO Corporate Report,

Gender Pay Gap Reporting

The Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 introduced the legislative basis for gender pay gap reporting in Ireland. The Act requires organisations to report on their hourly gender pay gap across a range of metrics by reference to their employees on a chosen snapshot date in June. Employers are required to publish their gender pay gap information within 6 months of their snapshot date. The report should be based on calculations on those employees’ remuneration for the 12-month period that precedes the snapshot date.

The gender pay gap is the difference on average across a population between men’s and women’s pay. In this report the gender pay gap is represented as the average difference in gross hourly earnings of men and of women, expressed as a percentage of men’s average gross hourly earnings. A gender pay gap which is positive indicates that, on average across the employed population, women are in a less favourable position than men. Where the gender pay gap is negative, this indicates the reverse - that, on average, men are in a less favourable position than women.

Employers are required to report on the following key gender pay gap metrics on an annual basis:

  1. Calculate the Mean Gender Pay Gap - the difference between the mean hourly pay of male employees and that of female employees expressed as a percentage of the mean hourly pay of male employees.
  2. Similar Mean Gender Pay Gap calculations in relation to male and female part-time employees, and for male and female employees on temporary contracts.
  3. Calculate the Median Gender Pay Gap - the difference between the median hourly pay of male employees and that of female employees expressed as a percentage of the median hourly pay of male employees.
  4. Similar Median Gender Pay Gap calculations in relation to male and female part-time employees, and for male and female employees on temporary contracts.
  5. Calculate the proportion of male and female employees that received bonus remuneration (a percentage figure).
  6. Calculate the proportion of male and female employees that received benefits-in-kind (a percentage figure).
  7. Calculate the proportion of male and female employees in four equally divided quartiles (i.e., expressed as each of the employer’s lower, lower middle, upper middle and upper quartile pay bands).

In addition, where any pay gaps are identified, employers are required to identify reasons for these gaps and actions being taken or planned to be taken to address the gaps. 

Data Sources

The pay data in the Gender Pay Gap report for 2024 is based on data from the National Shared Services Office (NSSO) payroll system for the relevant 12 month period. Data such as the gender, grade, full-time/part-time status, and permanent/temporary status of employees was taken from the Human Resources Management System (HRMS) which is a Civil Service wide IT system which records employee HR information. Internal CSO employee data was used to supplement the above external sources. 

Reference Period

The snapshot date chosen for this report is 21 June 2024 and its reporting period is 22 June 2023 to 21 June 2024. 

Definitions

Mean Gender Pay Gap: The mean gender pay gap is the difference between the mean hourly pay of male employees and that of female employees expressed as a percentage of the mean hourly pay of male employees. The mean hourly pay is the average hourly pay across the entire workforce.

Median Gender Pay Gap: The median gender pay gap is the difference between the median hourly pay of male employees and that of female employees expressed as a percentage of the median hourly pay of male employees. The median hourly pay is calculated by ranking all employees from the highest paid to the lowest paid and taking the hourly pay of the person in the middle.

Pay Quartiles: Pay quartiles are calculated by dividing employees in the organisation into four even groups ordered from highest to lowest hourly pay. The proportion of males and females in each quartile expressed as a percentage gives an indication of the gender representation at different levels of the organisation. 

Copyright

© Government of Ireland 2024

Material compiled and presented by the Central Statistics Office.

Produced by the Central Statistics Office.

Reproduction is authorised, subject to acknowledgement of the source.

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