The gender pay gap in Ireland

The gender pay gap is the difference between what men and women earn on average, across a whole country or employer. It is not the same as unequal pay. Paying a woman less than a man for the same work is illegal under Ireland’s Employment Equality Acts. A pay gap can exist even when everyone doing the same job is paid the same, because it also reflects who holds the senior, better-paid and full-time roles.

Key facts

• 8.3%: Ireland’s gender gap in average hourly pay in 2024, against an EU average of 11.1%. Ireland’s gap was 10.3% in 2019. The 2024 figures are provisional, and this measure leaves out public administration (Eurostat).
• €48,897 and €40,424: median annual earnings for men and women in 2024. The men’s figure is 21.0% higher. This looks at yearly pay, so it also reflects differences such as hours worked. It only counts jobs held for at least 50 weeks of the year (CSO).
• 27.6%: women’s share of the top 1% of earners in 2024, up from 22.6% in 2019 (CSO).
• 7.7% to 29.6%: the range in the gender earnings difference between counties in 2024, from Sligo to Kildare (CSO).

Why the gap persists

Research points to the structure of work more than to any single cause:

• Children: a major Danish study found men’s earnings barely change when they become parents, while women’s fall sharply and recover slowly (Kleven, Landais and Søgaard, 2019).
• Long, inflexible hours: economist Claudia Goldin argues that some jobs pay disproportionately more for long, continuous hours, which penalises anyone with less control over their time (Goldin, 2014).
• Who holds which jobs: men hold most of the top-paid roles, as the figures on top earners and leadership show.

What the law requires

Under the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021, employers with 50 or more staff must publish their gender pay gap each year, with an explanation of the causes and what they are doing about it. Danish research suggests that requiring firms to report their pay gaps can narrow them, though mainly by slowing men’s pay growth (Bennedsen and others, 2022).

The EU Pay Transparency Directive goes further, with new rights to pay information. Ireland told the European Commission it would miss the June 2026 deadline for bringing it into law and is taking a phased approach (McCann FitzGerald, 2026).

Where to find out more

• PayGap.ie: search and compare the reports of employers in Ireland
• Citizens Information: your right to equal pay
• Workplace Relations Commission: where to bring an employment equality complaint
• Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission: the State’s equality and human rights body
• National Women’s Council: Ireland’s national women’s membership organisation
• CSO Women and Men in Ireland: official statistics on gender in Ireland
• European Institute for Gender Equality: the EU Gender Equality Index, with country comparisons

Figures checked October 2026. Each figure gives its year, and newer data may since have been published.