Fifty percent of the Irish workforce say they have either seen and/or experienced the gender pay gap in action, according to the latest Taxback.com’s All-Ireland Employee Wellbeing Survey. The survey of 1,200 employees was carried out in conjunction with Healthy Place to Work® Ireland.

When it comes to the experience of male and female workers the feedback is quite different, with just 36% of men saying they have witnessed this in the workplace, compared to 63% of women.

Twice as many male workers (25% versus 12% of women) said that they don’t believe in gender quotas.Taxback.com report that the survey revealed a cohort of workers who are less enthused about the EU targets – with 15% believing that the targets are unachievable, and 17% contending that such quotas are unnecessary in the first place.

Commenting on the research, CEO of Taxback.com, Joanna Murphy said, "From previous research we have conducted on the topic, we have found that amongst the people who do agree that there is a gender pay gap, the most popular explanation has been that men have traditionally always been paid more than women – perhaps up to now there has been almost an acceptance of this in society as a ‘fait accompli’. A lack of investment in women’s careers is also a very commonly cited factor."

She added, "These are long-standing, structural attitudes that have been embedded in the world of employment and work for decades, and despite progress at some levels and a much healthier discourse in general around employment equality, as a nation we have a long way to go. According to the ESRI the gender pay gap stood at 14.7% in 2000, so in 20 plus years, there has been relatively little change in the basic wage gap in Ireland."

Source: www.businessworld.ie