16.7% Gender Pay Gap in Community Sector
8th March 2018
A subset of the 2017 National Pay and Benefits Survey and the second in the series, the Gender Pay Gap research, commissioned by The Community Foundation for Ireland highlights an increase from 14.2% in 2015 to 16.7% in 2017 in the gender pay gap for management in the community and voluntary sector in Ireland. The survey was conducted by research agency Quality Matters.
The gender pay gap rate of 16.7% for managers in the Community and Voluntary sector is higher than the 15.9% gender pay gap average in Ireland for managers.
Rates of Pay
The first Gender Pay Gap research was released in 2015, indicating an average gender pay gap for all management grades at 14.2%, with the highest gender pay gap seen at top level management (i.e Head of Organisation) at 15.5%. In the 2017 research released today the gender pay gap has jumped to an average of 16.7%, indicating females are paid just 83% of the male overall rate. Similar to 2015 the highest gender pay gap appears at top level management at 19.7%.
The research was broken down into small, medium and large organisations. Large organisations had the highest overall gender pay gap at 21.2%, followed by organisations with the highest income level that had an overall gender pay gap of 19.3%. Within the Community and Voluntary sector, the sector with the highest overall pay gap was found in the Social Services at 20.3%, followed by Housing and Homelessness at 19.5%.
Male to female ratio
The Gender Pay Gap research also examined the proportion of males to females in management positions. Males would appear to be disproportionately over represented at the higher levels of management and under represented at the lower levels. The research found that while males made up only one third of all managers, they were more likely to be working at the higher levels of management (Head of Organisation and Head of Function/Senior Manager) than females. Some 76% of all male managers were working at these levels compared to only 59% of females. For top level jobs and for Chief Executive roles, males were also more likely to work in large organisations and in organisations with the highest income. Male Chief Executives are more than twice as likely to be found in large-sized organisations with 100 or more employees at 26% compared to female chief executives at 11%. Only 8.6% of female chief executives work in the highest income organisations with an income of more than €5 million compared to 34.6% of males.
Tina Roche, CEO, The Community Foundation for Ireland on the launch of the report:
“We felt it was very important to commission the survey again this year to highlight the ongoing gender pay gap issue in the Community and Voluntary Sector, one that has widened since 2015. In a sector that is made up of almost two thirds female employees it is shocking that women are not receiving equal rates of pay. Government must remember to include the Community and Voluntary sector in the National Strategy for Women and Girls 2017-2020 to ensure that the gap does not further widen and that women are paid at an equal rate to men.
It is extremely important for the public and especially the donors we work with that the community and voluntary sector is open and honest and adheres to the highest standard of governance.”
The full Gender Pay Gap Survey is available here>>
