Senior management positions and large bonus gaps – gender pay reports reveal large discrepancies between some of Ireland’s largest employers

Across the sample of employers analyzed by the sunday independent, The difference between the average hourly wages of women and men was 12 percent. Eurostat estimates for Ireland from 2019 showed a wage gap of 11.3 percent. The average bonus gap for employers was 20.5 percent, ranging from 13.7 percent in favor of women to 50.6 percent in favor of men.

The gender pay gap is different from wage discrimination – paying men and women differently for the same work – which is illegal.

Around 660 Irish-based companies – those with more than 250 employees – are required this month to report on the disparity in average wages and bonuses of their Irish workforce and to disclose the gender breakdown across all pay scales.

That Sunday Independent An analysis of over 20 employers found that men made up, on average, 68.3 percent of the top-earning quartile of workers. According to many reports, the higher proportion of men in C-suite positions contributed to gaps in pay and bonuses.

Facebook owner Meta’s Irish activity was one of the reports analyzed. It recorded an average hourly wage gap of 15.7 percent and an average bonus gap of 43.3 percent.

Meta explained the gap in the report, saying women are better represented in non-technical positions than in technical positions, which tend to be better paid in the market. The quartile of highest-earning metaworkers was 63 percent male.

Meta’s report states that the bonus gap is higher than the hourly wage gap, largely due to “higher-tech equity.”

Paddy Power owner Flutter’s headquarters and online function reported a 12.6 percent gap in average hourly wage and an average bonus gap of 30.5 percent. In addition, almost three-quarters of the top-earning quartile in this role were men.

Among the various departments, the businesses of Flutter’s Pokerstars and Betfair International, known as TSG Interactive Services, had an average pay gap of 20.9 percent. It said the 33 percent bonus gap was due to the proportion of men in managerial positions and it needed to ensure it focused on improving the representation of women in such positions.

At Flutter’s Paddy Power retail store, the average hourly wage gap was -7.3 percent and the average bonus gap was -7.4 percent. Results were boosted by more women in senior positions within this department.

Technology company Avaya had the highest average hourly wage gap among companies surveyed by the Sunday Independent – it was 22.1 percent. It also had one of the highest average bonus gaps at 42.2 percent. Men made up 91 percent of the highest-paid quartile.

“As with many other technology services companies in Ireland and across the industry, there are more men than women in managerial positions and in positions in business areas that offer higher levels of pay,” says the report.

Dairygold Co-Operative showed a gender pay gap of 12.3 percent and a bonus gap of 42.5 percent.

The company said many shift and overtime paid roles went to male employees. However, when it removed overtime and shift work from its calculations, it showed that the average pay gap had narrowed to just 2.8 percent.

Dairygold said a gender pay gap “does not show or imply that there is prejudice or discrimination,” and it is often influenced by the distribution of employees in an organization.

Companies including tech giants Intel and Marks & Spencer had below-average hourly pay differentials of 5.4 and 4.2 percent, respectively. Electronics retailer Currys saw a -1.6 percent pay gap.

Four of Amazon’s businesses in Ireland were included, with average hourly pay differentials ranging from 4.3 percent to 19.7 percent. As with most company reports analyzed, the average bonus gaps were higher, ranging from 3.6 percent to 37.2 percent.

The average median pay gap, the difference between the middle woman and the middle man, was 11.8 percent across all employer reports examined.

Throughout the research, there was a clear trend towards notable gaps in terms of average bonus payout.

Maeve Griffin, an associate at the law firm Fieldfisher, said there are many reasons bonus pay exists — none of which relate to how good women are at their jobs compared to men.

“Employers should carefully review their bonus systems to ensure they are not directly or indirectly discriminatory,” she said. “Bonus payments should be based on clearly defined, objective and measurable criteria.”

She said criteria such as attendance or being required to work full-time could be seen as discriminatory as they typically disadvantaged female employees with caring responsibilities.

Griffin also said that unconscious bias could play a key role in determining bonus payouts. She added that bonus pay gaps could potentially be larger this year as significantly more women than men are taking on childcare responsibilities during the pandemic.

Mary Connaughton, director of the HR professional body CIPD Ireland, said bonus payments favor men because many are bonus recipients, such as sales representatives and executives.