IRISH WOMEN earn on average €160,000 less than men during their lifetime due to a pay gap caused by gender stereotypes, traditions and the problem of balancing their family and working life, a new study has found.
They are also more likely to be laid off in a recession because they are overrepresented in precarious jobs based on short-term contracts, according to the European Commission.
A commission report entitled Equality between Men and Women – 2009found the gender pay gap – or the difference between average hourly pay for women and men in Ireland – was 17.1 per cent in 2007.
This was slightly below the EU average pay gap at 17.4 per cent, a level that the commission claims in a new campaign video against gender inequality means women earn on average €160,000 less than men during a lifetime of employment.
The pay gap also means women end up with inferior pensions, leaving almost one-third of Irish women over 65 at risk of poverty. This compares to 23 per cent of men over 65 who are at risk of poverty during their retirement.
“We cannot continue wasting the potential of women in the economy and squander what we have achieved in equality,” said EU employment commissioner Vladimir Spidla, who launched a new campaign in Brussels yesterday aimed at tackling this pay gap in Europe. The EU introduced legislation in 1975 to enforce the principle of equal pay for work, which has dramatically reduced clear discrimination cases – where there is a difference in pay when a man and woman do the same job.
But gender stereotyping, ongoing discrimination, inequality in the labour market, undervaluing of women’s work and the tough balance between work and raising children has meant that the pay gap continues.
Mr Spidla said the EU executive may now legislate to try to eradicate the problem.
The pay gap is highest in Estonia (30.3 per cent) and Austria (35.5 per cent) and lowest in Italy (4.4 per cent) and Malta (5.2 per cent). In Britain, the pay gap is 21.1 per cent.
The report shows more women (89 per cent) in the Republic complete secondary education than men (83 per cent), yet men are overrepresented at the top levels of business and politics.
Just 8 per cent of directors sitting on the boards of Irish publicly-listed companies are women, while they make up just 13 per cent of TDs in the Dáil.
Across Europe, women make up almost 60 per cent of all university graduates, although the percentage choosing science and technology degrees is low.
Ongoing gender stereotypes restrict women’s and men’s study and career choices, leading to a gender-segregated labour market, the report says. It highlights that almost one-third of women (31 per cent) work part-time, four times higher than men. This may reflect a woman’s own choice, but the report notes more than six million women in Europe say they are “obliged not to work or work part-time because of their family responsibilities”. The report also predicts women will fare worse in the recession. “As women are overrepresented in precarious jobs based on short-term contracts, they are more likely to be affected by the economic downturn on the labour market,” it concludes.
GENDER GAP
POLITICS:13% of TDs in the Dáil are women
PAY:17.1% pay gap between men and women
BOARDROOM:8% of members of boards of public companies are women
FAMILY:Women spend 27.2 hours a week on housework compared to men's 7.5 hours
POVERTY:31% of women over 65 are at risk of poverty compared to 23% of men
WORK:Women work 34 hours a week in jobs compared to men's 46.7 hours a week