Female graduates earning 11% less than male counterparts

NEWLY graduated women are earning an average of 11% less than their male counterparts, according to a book released this week.

Where are We Now? New Feminist Perspectives on Women in Contemporary Ireland, edited by Ursula Barry, was unveiled by the National Women’s Council to coincide with today’s 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

In the book, Ms Barry writes: “Within the pay system, women continue to experience discrimination across the economy. Even among recent graduates from the third-level system, women’s pay is on average 11% below that of male graduates where the average gender pay gap is 16%.”

Orla O’Connor, head of policy at the National Women’s Council said the 11% figure pointed to gender discrimination and sexism in the workplace.

She said while the need for women to take time out of work to care for children or the need to take part-time jobs could be the reason behind the 16% figure, newly graduated women tended to enter the workplace full time, at least initially.

“Right from the time women leave education, you start to see a gap between women’s and men’s earnings even though they have the same education,” she said.

“It reflects the discrimination for women in the workplace in terms of the fact there are no or very little employment supports that facilitate women for caring responsibilities. The fact we do not have paid parental leave often means women will be spending longer time out of work and when they come back in they are earning less than their male counterparts.

“The effect of having children is significantly different for the careers of men and women. For example, for families with more than two children, one will see a significant fall of women’s participation in the workplace but you do not see the same for men. Nor do you see the shift to part-time work for men.”

Ms O’Connor said a key requirement is for better provision for family-friendly policies.

“Ireland is unique along with Britain that when the parental legislation was adopted following the EU Directive, they decided to make it unpaid. By making it unpaid you are just reinforcing the fact that women are the primary carers.”