Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Social Democrats first Private Members' motion in the new Dáil. I am delighted to be in a position to contribute to the debate as a Social Democrats Deputy for Wicklow. Our motion recognises first and foremost the incredibly important role essential workers in many different sectors have played in giving us the certainty and safety we craved during Covid-19. Be they our local shop assistants, our care assistants, our waste collectors or our takeaway deliverer, they all had to navigate the unpredictable and uncertain nature of working under Covid-19 so that we did not have to. We recognise and acknowledge the valuable contribution these workers make to the fundamental running of our economy. Now that the roadmap to exiting Covid-19 is under way, we need to face a hard truth in this country. We have relied on some of our most precarious and lowest paid workers to keep the country going during this crisis. The fact is that many essential workers are in low-paid and precarious jobs. They lack decent wages, statutory protections and the certainty that most of us take for granted. Praise and gratitude are not enough. Workers deserve a living wage, a decent standard of living, statutory protections and the right to collective bargaining. The State can no longer take advantage of these workers and it is for these workers and their families that we have tabled this motion today.

The structural problem of low pay in the economy is also a gendered one. I want to use my time today to focus on this aspect of low pay and workers. According to a 2016 report from the Think-tank for Action on Social Change, TASC, 29% of female workers are in low-paid jobs, in comparison to 19% of male workers. Some 46% of these women are the main earner in their household. Who minds one's children when one earns a decent living? Who educates them? Who nurses one's sick, elderly parent or cares for a loved one in a hospital? They are primarily women and they make up a large proportion of the workers who have kept this economy running while we were safe and protected in our homes during lockdown. It is no coincidence that the sectors experiencing chronically low pay are those made up of mostly female workers. Governments past and present have devalued care in this country and have taken advantage of the competing demands in women’s lives. It is no wonder that female workers make up 55% the workforce earning the national minimum wage or less, with men making up 45%. That is a 10% difference.

The childcare sector is an example. Early childhood educators are among the lowest paid of all our professional groups. A survey of more than 3,000 childcare workers found that 94% of them cannot make enough money to make ends meet. The average hourly rate for staff in the sector is just €12.55 and 90% of childcare workers question whether they have a future in the sector. These are the people who we rely on to educate, nurture and take care of our children and yet we do not value them enough to pay them a proper wage.

It is not just our children. It is also our elderly and vulnerable. According to CSO figures, women represent 80% of healthcare workers in Ireland. Low pay and difficult working conditions are plaguing the sector, particularly for home care workers. Most private home care assistants are qualified with a minimum of a Further Education and Training Awards Council, FETAC, level 5 qualification. However, the average rate of pay is less than the living wage.

These women have children too, families who depend on them for income and support. It is important that we acknowledge the impact low pay has on families because the two are interlinked. Female workers often need the flexibility of hours that comes with low-paid jobs because they simply cannot afford the high childcare costs but flexibility suits the employer more than the worker. The casual nature of the work makes it difficult to unionise and with family in the background the demands on women’s time and energy make them further disadvantaged. To add to the insecurity these women have to deal with, they are at increased risk of poverty with no guarantee of hours or income from week to week, no sick pay, no annual leave and no pension entitlements, leaving them open if circumstances change.

Governments past and present have presided over many policies that have consistently left behind women who work in these sectors. It is time to break the cycle of discrimination and establish a task force so we can move forward towards a living wage, enforce more rights for workers with better pay and conditions and include the right to unionise.

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