Gender pay gap disclosure bill likely to become law next year

A bill mandating companies with over 50 employees to publish information about any pay gap between men and women in their organisation is likely to come into force next year.

The Government accepted the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2017 as it reached committee stage in the Seanad last night, The Irish Times reports.

The bill, introduced by Labour senator Ivana Bacik, assigns new powers to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission to make mandatory information disclosure schemes.

Under such schemes, specified categories of employers would be required to compile and publish pay gap information. Contravention by an employer of the provisions of a scheme would be an offence.

It is expected that the Government will seek to amend the company size threshold from 50 employees to 100 employees.

Once the Oireachtas approves the bill, it is likely to come into operation within the first half of next year, the newspaper reports.