Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Our amendment No. 5 in this group seeks to do something similar, to ensure we capture the most pertinent data to form a comprehensive picture of the extent and nature of the gender pay gap. We believe the wording in amendment No. 5 is more suitable because it recognises it is not sufficient to compare just part-time men and part-time women workers. We know those working fewer hours suffer a basic earnings, bonus, career progression and, later, a pension penalty relative to full-time workers over the course of their working lives, so we want to ensure we are making true comparisons. Also, as Senator Sherlock said on Second Stage, we must be careful about that full-time and part-time comparison. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, defines part-time work as less than full-time work, typically 80% or less of the full-time week in a particular role. In 2020, 29% of all women in the labour force worked part-time compared with 11% of men, according to the CSO labour force survey. We can see straight away a big gender discrepancy in the proportions of women and men working part-time. If we only compare part-time women workers and part-time men workers, we will fail to capture the comprehensive picture and, in particular, we will fail to capture the benefit associated with being a full-time worker with regard to all the other side benefits of full-time working, including greater probability of promotion, pay progression and, later, pension earning.