Warning of fostering ‘resentment’ as minister set to enforce ‘gender pay gap’ reports

Two seasoned economists have spoken to the News Letter to warn that such ‘pay gap’ reporting is often misleading – and that one important measure shows Northern Irish women’s earning power in fact outstrips that of men.

The news emerged thanks to a question from SDLP MLA Sinead McLaughlin, who had asked what progress was being made in this area.

The Employment Act of 2016 required the creation of a gender pay reporting system in NI, but due largely to the collapse of the Executive it was never actually acted upon.

In response to her Assembly question, Ms McLaughlin was told this week that now “legislation to require employers in Northern Ireland to report on their gender pay gap” is to be brought forward by the Department for Communities, led by SF minister Deirdre Hargey.

Julian Jessop is a London-based economist who formerly worked both as a government advisor and senior economist for HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank.

Mr Jessop said not only are pay reports “a burden on employers” but they also “create confusion and resentment”.

He said: “Ironically, the case for gender pay gap reporting in NI is weaker than for the rest of the UK – unless the intention is to raise the wages of men.

“The latest Office for National Statistics data shows NI has a median full-time gender pay gap of 3.6%... in favour of women!

“Campaigners usually present the data as evidence that women are paid less than their ‘male colleagues’ – implying unequal pay for work of equal value.

“This is of course illegal – and also makes little economic sense (why employ men at all, if women will do the same work for less?)”

Rather than comparing identical job roles, there are usually “differences in the type of job being done” by men and women (for a multitude of reasons) – and people overlook this when seeing headline figures about “pay gaps”.

For example, a headline in The Guardian in 2018 claimed Ryanair had “the worst gender pay gap in the airline industry” with “median hourly pay among UK staff is 71.8% lower for women”.

As the article went on, it became apparent why.

It wasn’t that male employees were getting more money than women for doing the same job.

Instead it turned out that just eight of its 554 pilots were women (whilst they made up over two-thirds of flight attendants).

“In general, I’m all in favour of greater transparency,” said Mr Jessop.

“But I do wonder whether firm-level gender pay gap reporting is worth it.”

For much the same reasons, Esmond Birnie, senior Ulster University economist, said he considers such pay reports “unreliable”.

Women may earn less than men for a host of reasons, such as working fewer hours, leaving work mid-career to start a family, or the fact that women are more likely to work part-time (2020 government figures show 40% of female workers are in part-time jobs, compared to just 13% of working men).

All of this “reinforces the point that the gender pay gap may not be as useful a policy indicator as some people think,” he said.

For more click below:

Click here: US firm Allstate quiet on hiring policies after NI video reveals talk of gender-based targets

Click here: Director of group hired to train PSNI dubbed police ‘racist oppressor pigs who deserve the wall’

Click here: Equality Commission defends workplace survey that bears little resemblance to workforce

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