Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2020-11-12
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Leo Varadkar (FG), Dublin West

We already have a law that requires equal pay for equal work. However, it is not as simple as that. Many women work in professions that were traditionally considered female professions and those professions have been less well paid historically than jobs that were traditionally seen to be male professions. It is the breadwinner model, as it is described. Why is a garda paid more than a nurse? I do not know. It is probably because of this tradition that one was seen to be a man's job and the other was seen to be a woman's job. That is not something that can be fixed quickly. However, we are going to act on it through legislation that is currently going through the Houses on the gender pay gap, which requires companies with more than 50 employees to report on gender pay, report on the gap, explain why there is a gap and to do something about it. It follows on from the legislation in Iceland. I do not know why it has not been done yet, as it should be done, but it is something we will try to get done by the first quarter of next year.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-11-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-11-12