Gender pay gap: Ireland’s worst offenders in 2024 on hourly pay

Goodbody Stockbrokers, Cantor Fitzgerald, the Irish Aviation Authority and Uniphar’s Allcare and Hickey’s Pharmacy groups were among the 25 companies which reported the highest median hourly pay gap between men and women employees last year, according to data collected by PayGap.ie.

Under the Gender Pay Gap Information Act, companies with more than 150 employees are required to create and publish a report outlining their gender pay gap across a number of metrics.

Across the data for nearly 750 companies collected by PayGap.ie, approximately three-quarters of companies had a median hourly wage gap in favour of men with the largest disparity at Uniphar’s Allcare Pharmacies of 60.4 per cent.

Also among the five largest wage gaps was the Irish Aviation Authority, with a 54 per cent media pay gap, which, it said, “primarily arises due to lower numbers of females in specialist aviation roles such as pilot and engineering roles, as well as low numbers in managerial roles such as accountable manager or nominated postholder roles.”

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Goodbody Stockbrokers had a median hourly wage gap of 46.6 per cent, with its mean standing at 41.5 per cent. Goodbody said that “fewer females than males continue to occupy the highest paid roles in the firm”, with just 15 per cent of its highest paid quartile being women as opposed to 55 per cent of its lowest quartile.

[ Gender pay gap increased at three government departments during 2024Opens in new window ]

The Irish wing of US investment group Cantor Fitzgerald had mean and median hourly pay gaps of more than 40 per cent, with women making up just 17 per cent of their top 25 per cent of earners despite making up 37 per cent of their total staff.

Of the remaining companies, nearly 20 per cent reported a pay gap in favour of women, with the largest disparity in the Chief State Solicitor’s Office which reported a pay gap of 40.18 per cent. The Economic & Social Research Institute found an average median pay gap of 30.9 per cent in favour of women, which it said “reflects not just the higher proportion of females in senior roles but also the fact that pay scales are wider at senior levels.”

Construction companies made up eight of the 15 companies with the lowest representation of women in the top 25 per cent of earners.

Conversely, 12 of the 15 companies with the lowest representation of men in the lowest quartile of pay, are in the human health and social work activities sector, with women making up between 83.6 per cent and 96 per cent of the top earners.

The data for nearly 750 companies was compiled from the individual reports by technology worker Jennifer Keane, founder of PayGap,ie, who said her experience of gender pay bias served as the motivation for the project.

The project is the product of nearly 200 hours of work since the start of the year, she said, noting that, in her experience, nearly 15 per cent of the pay gap reports include errors or omissions.

All organisations with more than 50 employees must also report on their gender pay gap for the first time this year and Ms Keane will look to expand her database when that happens, she said, noting that a State-run database for the information is due to launch this year.