From today, women in Ireland are working for free for the rest of the year

From here until the end of 2020, women in Ireland are basically working for free.

That’s the message from the WorkEqual campaign, which has found that from today due to the current gender pay gap of 14.4%, women in Ireland are effectively working for free. Campaign founder Sonya Lennon says that many factors contribute to the gender pay gap, including fewer women in senior or higher-earning roles, and more women working part-time. “While the pay gap is a somewhat blunt tool and it must be remembered that it is a symptom of deeper issues, it is effective in proving that, across the workforce, women persistently earn less than men," she says. "Equal Pay Day – and the WorkEqual campaign overall – is about highlighting and challenging the reasons for this. “Ireland has made progress on gender equality in recent years, but we still have a long way to go. The latest Index from the European Institute for Gender Equality gives us a score of 72.2 out of 100. It shows gender inequalities in Ireland are most pronounced in the domain of power, where we score only 55.8 points." Lennon says that childcare remains an issue for woking women, with the pay gap being much wider between women and men in couples with children, compared to those without. "The full-time equivalent employment rate for women is only 45%, compared to 61% for men," she says. "And the working life of women in Ireland lasts, on average, 34 years – compared with 40 years for men. “All of this means women are not yet on an equal footing – economically, socially or politically – with men. This needs to change.” To mark the day, the WorkEqual campaign has released a video featuring over 20 Oireachtas members and the Lord Mayor of Dublin speaking about gender equality. Y0u can check out the video here.