Minister Foley announces gender pay reporting portal for public & private sector organisations to mark International Women’s Day
-
From: Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
- Published on: 8 March 2025
- Last updated on: 12 April 2025
Minister Norma Foley, Minister for Children, Disability and Equality has announced on International Women’s Day that a new gender pay reporting portal for 6,000 public and private sector organisations will be launched in the autumn.
The online portal will, for the first time, bring reports from all private and public sector organisations together instead of having them published on individual websites. The portal will help draw attention to the importance of gender pay gap reporting, and will be fully searchable by members of the public.
This year will also see the extension of the legal obligation to report on the gender pay gap to every organisation in Ireland with over 50 employees. The Department of Children estimates that a total of 6,000 organisations will be required to report their gender pay data to the new portal.
Speaking today, as Minister with responsibility for gender equality, Minister Foley said:
“The Programme for Government outlines the vision of this government for the rights of women and girls. The gender pay gap in Ireland in 2022 was 9.6%, meaning that the average man earned 9.6% more than the average woman. The new gender pay gap portal will help to raise awareness of the gender pay gap among employers and the public.”
The most recent release of data from Growing Up in Ireland, which follows the progress of children born from 1998 onwards, has made clear that the gender pay gap continues to affect young women. One of the starkest figures emerging is that of the median weekly earnings, with women earning less than men, even with comparable education levels. Women with a degree or higher earned €28 less per week than men, and women with a higher cert or less earned €103 less than the men with an equivalent level of education.
Amongst the group of women in the Growing Up in Ireland Study who were born in 1998 and are now 25 years old, 88% of them were concerned about gender inequality compared to 66% of men.
Minister Foley commented:
“A powerful society is a fair and equal society. There has been progress made since 2007 when the gender pay gap in Ireland was 17.3% but much more remains to be done. Women are capable, committed and talented contributors to the workforce. Their levels of pay should reflect this.”
Updated regulations will be put in place to require organisations to report their data via the new gender pay gap portal in time for this year’s deadline of the end of November. They can also upload their gender pay gap reports with more information on their own websites if they wish.
Minister Foley will also launch the next National Strategy for Women and Girls this year, placing the rights of women and girls at the heart of government action:
“Women and girls in Ireland should be seen and heard across all areas of society – in government departments, boardrooms and indeed cabinet rooms. I am committed as Minister for Equality to identifying and rooting out whatever impediments that stand in the way of Irish women and girls in achieving their full potential.”
In designing and developing this new National Strategy for Women and Girls strategy, the department has carried out a public consultation process. This includes the first-ever National Youth Assembly on Gender Equality to ensure that the strategy reflects the priorities of women and girls in a modern, and ever-changing Irish society.
Notes
National Strategy for Women and Girls
Gender equality has been promoted and advanced in Ireland under a whole-of-government policy framework provided by the National Strategy for Women and Girls 2017-2020 which was extended, due to COVID-19, for a further year to end 2021.
The overall goal for the Strategy was to change attitudes and practices preventing women's and girls' full participation in education, employment and public life, at all levels, and to improve services for women and girls, with priority given to the needs of those experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, the poorest outcomes.
The Programme for Government, “Securing Ireland’s Future” (2025), includes a commitment to develop and implement a new National Strategy for Women and Girls.
The next National Strategy for Women and Girls will adopt a lifecycle approach with actions divided into differing age categories to better engage with the distinct challenges and issues faced by women of different age groups.
Gender Pay Gap and Gender Pay Gap Reporting
In the EU, the difference between the average gross earnings of female and male employees across the economy is known as the 'gender pay gap'.
The gender pay gap gives an overall picture of the differences between men and women in terms of earnings and measures. The gap reflects ongoing discrimination and inequalities in the labour market which, in practice, mainly affect women. This concept is broader than discrimination in the sense of "equal pay for equal work or work of equal value".
On 18 October 2023, the Central Statistics Office published results of the 2022 Structure of Earnings Survey, which shows that the gender pay gap in Ireland continues to narrow. The gender pay gap in Ireland in 2022 was 9.6%, meaning that the average male earned 9.6% more than the average female.
The Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 requires employers to report on their gender pay gap across a range of metrics, as set out in the Regulations under the Act. The purpose of gender pay gap reporting is to encourage organisations to recognise and reflect on their gender pay gap and the drivers behind it.
Reporting began in 2022 for employers with over 250 employees and was extended to employers with over 150 employees in 2024. In 2025, employers with over 50 employers will be required to report on their gender pay gaps.
Employers are required to choose a ‘snapshot’ date in June each year and to base their reporting on the employees they have on that date. In 2025, employers will be required to publish their report in November.
An online portal is being developed and will be ready for organisations to report this year. Further details of the portal will be made available in the coming months.
Growing Up in Ireland
GUI is a national, longitudinal study of children and young people in Ireland and is a collaborative programme of work between the CSO and the Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Inclusion, and Youth (DCEDIY). The release referred to presents the main results describing the lives of 25-year-olds in GUI, from the central survey themes of physical health, well-being and key relationships, education, civic participation, and economic participation.