They will also be required to state what measures are being taken to eliminate or reduce the pay gap at their company.

Irish employers will be obliged to publish details of the pay gap between men and women at their companies under new legislation. To mark International Women's Day on Tuesday (8 March), Equality Minister Roderic O’Gorman announced details of the introduction of gender pay gap reporting in Ireland. This comes after the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 was signed into law last July and introduced the legislative basis for reporting on gender pay gaps. Now, in a statement on its website, the Government has said regulations under the Act will be published in the coming weeks and will require organisations with over 250 employees to report on their gender pay gap in 2022. Employers will choose a "snapshot" date of their employees in June 2022 and will report on the hourly gender pay gap for those employees on the same date in December 2022. The information employers will be asked to include in their report will be:

• The mean and median hourly wage gap, the former reflecting the entire pay range in an organisation and the latter excluding the impact of unusually high earners
• Data on bonus pay
• The mean and median pay gaps for part-time employees and for employees on temporary contracts
• The proportions of male and female employees in the lower, lower middle, upper middle and upper quartile pay bands.

Employers will also be required to publish a statement setting out, in their opinion, the reasons for the gender pay gap in their company. They will also be obliged to state what measures are being taken or proposed to be taken to eliminate or reduce that pay gap. The reporting requirement will initially apply to organisations with 250 or more employees but will extend over time to organisations with 50 or more employees: “When it comes to participation in the labour market, women face far greater obstacles than men," O’Gorman said. "Persisting gender stereotypes, the glass ceiling preventing women from senior positions and the fact that women take on a much larger share of family caring responsibilities and unpaid work in the home are all contributing factors to a significant pay disparity between women and men in Ireland. “Advancing women’s rights and equality is a priority for this Government and taking real and effective action to end pay inequality for women must be key to that. "The Gender Pay Gap Act requires employers to not only report on the gender pay gap in their organisation but also places on obligation on employers to provide details of measures being taken to reduce that gap. “This reporting requirement will help to ensure pay transparency exists in organisations and will play an important role in achieving gender equality in the workplace." Meanwhile, to also mark International Women's day, Lidl Ireland announced it has reduced the gender pay gap at the supermarket chain by 30% to 6.2% in one year. https://twitter.com/lidl_ireland/status/1501124351302811652