Gender Pay Gap is 9.55% at DETE
7th January 2025
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE) recently published its Gender Pay Gap Report for 2024 as per the requirements of the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021.
Initially, the legislation required organisations with 250 or more employees to report on the hourly gender pay gap in their organisation across a range of metrics. In 2024, this legislation was extended to all organisations with 150 or more employees and next year (2026), it will apply further to all employers with 50 or more employees.
The report indicates that DETE’s mean gender pay gap in 2024 is 9.55%, in favour of males; females earned €31.17, whereas males earned €34.46 with the mean being €32.57. DETE’s median gender pay gap is 10.45% in favour of males; females earned €27.79, whereas males earned €31.03 with the median being €29.33. The mean rate allows the employer to assess the entire pay range in the organisation. The median allows for a better representation of the middle values as it is less impacted by extreme values on either side of the pay distribution.
The mean hourly rate for both male and female employees is higher in the Department than the median hourly rate. This means that the lower income employees in the Department outnumber those earning more. As the Department is a hierarchical organisation with strict grade and pay structure, this is to be expected.
DETE has a total of 969 employees, with 57% females and 43% males and this report incorporates staff employed at the time of the snapshot for reporting on 21 June 2024. It shows that the gender pay gap at DETE continues to be largely driven by higher numbers of female staff in the most junior pay bands, and higher numbers of male staff in the most senior pay band.
“While female staff are well represented at most levels of our organisation, including at the senior management levels of Assistant Principal and Principal Officer, we are aware that we have a higher proportion of women at junior grades, and that our most senior tier of management is imbalanced,” acknowledged Declan Hughes, Secretary General in the latest report.
As a result, DETE is committed to a number of actions such as using learning and career development initiatives to improve its approach to ED&I and monitoring fairness and transparency in promotion practices.
In June 2024, DETE launched the Department’s first ED&I Strategy 2024-2026. This Strategy aims to deliver on the following four key goals:
•Developing a positive culture of support and inclusion
•Ensuring staff at all levels are skilled to work in diverse teams
•Providing equality of opportunity for all staff; and
•Ensuring equality in access to services for all our customers.
Since the Strategy launch, the Department’s Management Board have been active in promoting ED&I across the organisation, and the Strategy Working Group has made progress on several actions such as the establishment of networks and hosting of events, making the Department a ‘JAM Card friendly’ organisation, and improving communication to staff around ED&I issues.
You can read DETE’s Gender Gap Report 2024 here>>
