The Gender Pay Gap refers to the difference in the average hourly pay of male and female employees across a workforce. It is important to state that this is not the same as unequal pay. Paying women less than men for the same job because of their gender is illegal and outlawed by equality legislation. All CSO employees are aligned to Civil Service pay grades which provide for equal pay for equal work irrespective of gender. Our workforce is made up of Civil Service general, professional, technical, and field staff grades. The CSO’s pay and grade structures are set centrally by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation.
The mean Gender Pay Gap in the CSO was 3.5% in 2025, which means that the mean hourly rate for men is 3.5% higher than that of women. This rate decreased from 6.9% in 2024 and continues the gradual downward trend in the gap since 2022 when the legislation was first introduced. The median Gender Pay Gap was negative for the first time in 2025 (-1.7%), which indicates that women had a slightly higher median hourly pay compared with men. The overall picture suggests that, broadly speaking, hourly pay between men and women is relatively similar, with a modest mean Gender Pay Gap being driven by some higher earners at the top-end of the male income distribution. It should be noted that small fluctuations to relative mean and median income will occur year-on-year due to changes in the workforce, staff turnover, recruitment shifts etc and do not necessarily reflect structural shifts in the workforce composition. The CSO will continue to monitor overall trends to identify emerging patterns.
Analysis of our Gender Pay Gap data in 2025 found that the biggest impact on the CSO’s average hourly rate continues to be the grade at which someone works (See Figure 4.1). Therefore, achieving greater gender parity across all grades in the CSO significantly helps to reduce the gender pay gap.
On our snapshot date of 20 June 2025, we had a total workforce of 1,201 staff members, consisting of 653 females and 548 males, across a diverse range of grades. In the analysis of workforce by grade, there is good evidence that progress has been made in achieving greater gender parity across most grades in the CSO, which is helping to reduce the overall gender pay gap (See Figure 4.3).
It is important to note that the CSO has both an annual and a cyclical programme of work which requires hiring additional staff on a temporary basis at various times, which can impact the size and composition of the workforce on the Gender Pay Gap reporting snapshot date.
To reduce the CSO’s Gender Pay Gap further we must continue to focus on achieving a better gender balance across all grades in the CSO. This report details arrangements already in place to progress gender equality and further includes information on the measures it is planned to implement.
Recruitment in the CSO is conducted both in-house by the CSO’s Recruitment team and externally by publicjobs.ie, the centralised recruitment agency for the Civil and Public Service. General service grade posts in the CSO are largely filled by publicjobs.ie with the CSO assigned the next successful candidate from order of merit on open and interdepartmental panels without regard to gender. The CSO conducts its own recruitment for specialist roles such as those in statistical, analytical, and technology areas, as well as survey field staff. The CSO also conducts its own internal promotion competitions. All competitions conducted by the CSO follow the Commission for Public Service Appointments (CPSA) Codes of Practice. The CSO continues to focus on its own recruitment activity to ensure there are no unintentional barriers to female participation and successful progression in the competitions under our remit. Technology recruitment is a priority focus area, as the majority of staff in this function are male (See Figure 4.11).
The CSO continued in 2025 to promote a suite of flexible working arrangements to enable enhanced work-life balance. The majority of employees availing of these arrangements are females, e.g. an analysis of part-time working in the CSO illustrates that more than 90% of staff availing of these flexibilities are female, with the majority working in the grades of Clerical Officer and Executive Officer (See Figure 4.6). While work-life balance measures are in general welcomed, it is important to closely monitor all flexible working initiatives, to ensure there are no unintended negative impacts on career progression for women, in particular.