‘No timeline’ for delivery of online gender pay gap reporting platform

There is “no timeline” for when a planned online platform for companies to file gender pay gap reports might be in place, according to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

The Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 requires large organisations to report annually on their gender pay gap, as well as on steps they are taking to reduce the gap.

With the Act having come into effect last year, 2023 is the second year when Irish companies with more than 250 employees will have to publish their gender pay gap reports in a manner easily accessible to the public, such as on their website.

Employers are required to take data from a “snapshot date” in June, and report on the gender pay gap for employees by the same date in December.

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When details of gender pay gap reporting requirements were first announced in 2022, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth said plans were in place to develop an online reporting system for the 2023 reporting cycle.

A similar platform in the UK allows companies to file their gender pay gap data online, and provides a centralised database for the public to search and compare gender pay gap data of different employers.

However, in a statement to The Irish Times, a spokeswoman for the department said an online reporting platform is not in place for the 2023 reporting cycle and there is “currently no timeline” for when the platform might be in place.

“Future regulations made under the Act may provide for a central website on to which employers will be required to upload their information. Plans to develop an online reporting system for future reporting cycles are being advanced by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth,” she said.

Donal Swan, women’s economic equality co-ordinator with the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) said it was “disappointing” the platform would not be in operation for the 2023 reporting cycle.

“Currently you have to trawl through lots of different [websites of] organisations who present the data in different ways. A database which presents the data in a manner in which it can be easily compared is a really, really important part of this reporting,” he said.

“The department needs to make sure that it’s in place for next year and definitely ahead of next year’s reporting cycle,” he added.

Mr Swan said gender pay gap reporting was not a “solution in and of itself” to addressing Ireland’s gender pay gap, which sat at 9.6 per cent in 2022 according to the Central Statistics Office.

However, he said it was an important data-gathering tool, as 2023 will offer comparative data for the first time, as companies with more than 250 employees will publish their second annual reports next month.

Reporting requirements will extend to organisations with more than 150 employees in 2024, and those with more 50 employees in 2025. The NWCI has called for the legislation to be extended further, to companies with more than 25 employees.

The department spokeswoman said reducing the gender pay gap was “an important measure in advancing socioeconomic equality for women and girls”, and that the department was also examining how best to transpose the European Union pay transparency directive into Irish law by the deadline of June 2026.