On 13 July 2021, the Gender Pay Gap Act 2021 (Act) was signed into law. Under the Act and regulations to be introduced under it, employers will be required to publish details on the pay differences between male and female employees. 

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has indicated that the reporting process will begin in 2022 and will initially apply to organisations with 250 or more employees. After three years, the scope of the reporting obligations will extend to organisations with 50 or more employees.

The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman (Minister), will draft regulations to give effect to the provisions of the Act. The regulations will set out the form, frequency and manner in which information is to be published. The Minister indicated that the regulations may require employers to send gender pay gap reports to employees in addition to publishing them on the employer’s website. Employers may also have to upload the reports to a central Government website.

A more comprehensive overview of the Act is available in our previous publication:

Narrowing the Gap – Gender Pay Gap Reporting set to Become Law