Women taking pay hit over time off for children
Friday September 11 2009
WOMEN are taking a big hit in their pay packets when they have children.
Women's wages are lagging 22pc behind those of male workers and the main reason is the time they take out to raise families.
A new ESRI study reveals that lower levels of work experience is the single greatest factor stopping women from enjoying the same pay as the opposite sex. And reducing hours to bring up children is the main reason they are not accumulating this vital experience.
"Clearly, the biggest influence in the gap is women's lower levels of work experience, because females spend longer periods outside the labour market due to family responsibilities," said author Dr Seamus McGuinness.
"Part-time work does not seem to work for women as they seem to come back at lower level positions to the workplace. Otherwise, it is difficult to see why their wages are penalised."
Policies
He said the wage gap between the sexes would narrow if employers adopted policies that allowed women to take time off to look after children while still retaining the same position.
Working flexi-time was found to make no difference to pay levels, although part-time work drove them down. However, the report found that women who took career breaks tended to return to jobs at the same grade or level they left.
Men were more likely to have supervisory roles than women. Higher levels of education among females helped to bridge the wage gap but was not enough to compensate for the effects of experience in shuttling men up the career ladder.
Women who worked part-time were actually found to have "attributes" including longer experience in their job that should mean they earned slightly more than men.
But they were found to earn less due to "either unobserved influences or discrimination".
When factors like experience, education, and time spent out of labour market are taken into account, the figure drops to 8pc.
The authors of the report cannot explain this part of the gap but say some of it could be due to discrimination.
The report shows that men's earnings range from 46pc higher in education to 13pc higher in the hotels sector. However, when the factors are taken into account, the gap is reduced to 6pc in education and 5pc in hotels.
Chief Executive of the Equality Authority Renee Dempsey, said the research showed there was "still some way to go" to achieve equal pay.
- Anne-Marie Walsh Industry Correspondent
