Gender pay gap at The Irish Times falls by more than two-thirds

The gender pay gap among staff at The Irish Times has fallen by more than two-thirds in 2023 as a result of the appointment of women to a number of senior executive positions.

In its gender pay gap report for 2023, The Irish Times DAC noted that its mean gender pay gap was 4.24 per cent, down from 14.47 per cent a year previously. This indicates that the mean hourly pay for men employed by the company was 4.24 per cent higher than for women in 2023.

In terms of the median hourly wage, the gender pay gap at the news publisher has fallen from 20.39 per cent in 2022, to 8.15 per cent last year.

Figures for both years were based on a snapshot date of June 28th. It was the second year that Irish organisations with more than 250 employees were legally required to publish a gender pay gap report.

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In its 2023 report, The Irish Times noted that the mean hourly rate for women in the company increased by 10.5 per cent during the year to June 28th, 2023, while the rate for men increased by 0.6 per cent.

The company said the larger increase in average pay for women was due to a number of senior executive appointments. The share of women employed in the highest-paid quartile of the company increased from 22 per cent in 2022 to 25 per cent in 2023.

However, the share of women employed in the other three pay quartiles fell over the same period.

In the upper middle quartile, the proportion of women employees edged down from 32 per cent to 31 per cent, while in the lower middle quartile, women accounted to 30 per cent of roles, down from 32 per cent. In the lowest quartile the share of women staff fell from 43 per cent to 36 per cent.

The company noted that movement in the middle quartiles was a result of additional male staff employed at its Citywest print plant due to the commencement of new print contracts in 2023, and that a “challenge remains lowering the gap in other sections of the business, such as technology and editorial”.

The Irish Times noted that it achieved one of the goals last year in its gender pay gap action plan – to be within 5 per cent of eliminating the company’s gender pay gap, in advance of its 2027 target date.

The news publisher said it also aims to reduce its overall gender pay gap each year, and achieve a 50:50 gender balance at the top half of the organisation within five years of its first gender pay gap report in 2022.

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