Irish banks’ gender pay gaps ‘very worrying’ says union boss

John O’Connell of the Financial Services Union

Sarah Collins

The head of the Financial Services Union has called on Ireland’s three main lenders to urgently address their “very worrying” gender pay gaps.

The call comes after the Irish Independent reported that two of the three main lenders — AIB and Bank of Ireland — saw their pay gaps inch up slightly on last year.

The gender pay gap measures the average hourly difference between male and female pay across a business, from the lowest to highest paid staff. It is not an indicator of pay discrimination.

Bank of Ireland’s pay gap is 21pc, meaning that for every €1 a man earns (on average) a woman earns €0.79. AIB’s gap is slightly lower, at 18.9pc. PTSB’s gap is 16.3pc.

The average across all three banks is 18.7pc. In median terms — which looks at the mid-point between the highest and lowest salaries and can eliminate some distortions at the top of the pay scale — the average is 13.9pc.

Ireland’s economy-wide pay gap was 9.6pc last year, according to the CSO.

“The gender pay gap results published this week by the three main retail banks are very worrying and deserve the attention of all stakeholders in the sector,” said FSU general secretary John O’Connell.

“It is unacceptable banks are reporting little or no progress on closing the gender pay gap. In some cases, the [gap] has widened, proving the current action plans are not working. I contrast this to the priority banks have given to awarding dividends to their shareholders.”

The results for AIB and Bank of Ireland mark an increase of 0.5 percentage points on last year, following several years of shrinking gaps. However, when measured in median terms, AIB’s gap fell more than a point to 13.1pc.

Pay gaps in the financial sector are amongst the highest of any sector, while bonus gaps tend to be even higher.

Stockbroker Davy, which has seen its pay gap improve substantially, by almost eight points on last year, has a pay gap of 40.1pc and a bonus gap of 62pc.

Insurer AIG has a pay gap of 28.2pc and a bonus gap of 53pc, both of which are higher than last year.

Under Irish law, companies with more than 250 staff must file their pay gap reports by the end of December.