Background to the Research

• In the diverse fields of pay and pay determination, one pattern remains markedly consistent. This is the gender differential between women and men. In Northern Ireland women's hourly earnings are in average 84.7% of those of men. This echoes a similar, though larger, gender pay gap in Great Britain. This report presents the findings of research commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission for Northern Ireland from an independent research organisation, Industrial Relations Services.
  
  
• The aim of the research was to examine the characteristics of pay structures across public sector services and industries in Northern Ireland and to assess how these characteristics may impact upon the gender pay differential.

Research Approach

• A postal survey of private sector employers employing 50 people of more was undertaken which produced responses from 110 organisations employing a total of 37,588 people.
  
  
• An analysis of comparable public sector data such as collective agreements and staffing returns was also undertaken along with 45 follow-up interviews with employers in the private sector which focused on issues of particular concern for the research.

Main Findings

Pay structures and gender

• Eight in ten organisations in the private sector covered in the research, organise their pay arrangements into pay structures, as do all public sector employers covered.
  
  
• Nine in ten private sector pay structures are clearly gender-segregated, being heavily dominated either by men or women. Similarly, only three of sixteen public sector pay structures examined are gender neutral, in that they cover similar proportions of men and women.
  
  
• The earnings potential is considerably lower in structures where women rather than men, are concentrated.
  
  
• In the private sector, women are most likely to be concentrated in the bottom half of pay structures whereas men are concentrated in the top half.
  
  
• Public sector grading structures show a concentration of women in the most junior grades while men are more evenly distributed through the structures.

Aspects of pay determination

• The majority of private sector pay structures cover a fairly narrow occupational grouping and women are disproportionately concentrated in structures including only a narrow range of jobs.
  
  
• Most pay determination decisions are made at company rather than group, division or local level. This finding applies particularly to female-dominated pay structures.
  
  
• Women are less likely than men to be found in business units which have collective bargaining.
• Female-dominated pay structures are less likely than male-dominated structures to be influenced by collective bargaining.
  
  
• Female-dominated structures are more likely than male-dominated to have pay decisions made at local level.

Pay rises and progression

• The overwhelming majority of both men and women covered by the research receive some pay rise which is not linked to individual performance - an across-the-board or general increase.
  
  
• Male-dominated pay structures in the private sector are twice as likely as female-dominated ones to include provision for an individual merit-based increase or to have performance-related pay progression.
  
  
• Men are four times as likely as women to be in pay structures which allow for performance-based pay rises.
  
  
• The lack of openness and clarity about criteria for merit/performance payment in the majority of organisations means that potential for discrepancies to creep into these systems is considerable.
  
  
• Lack of opportunity for promotion for jobs with higher responsibility seems to be the main limit on pay progression for women in the public sector.

Job Evaluation

• The use of job evaluation appears to be spreading and the majority of schemes used are analytical, factor-based ones.
  
  
• Men seem rather more likely than women to be in pay structures where job evaluation applies. This is likely to be a result of the greater concentration of men in larger pay structures, covering a wide range of occupations.
  
  
• Public sector evidence suggests that, even where a scheme has been designed specifically to address equal pay for work of equal value issues women still tend to end up at the bottom of earnings and pay hierarchies.

Make-up of earnings

• Male dominated structures are slightly more likely to include access to overtime payments than female-dominated structures, and at least twice as likely to offer shift-premium or bonus opportunities.
  
  
• Most employees - both male and female - are in pay structures which make them eligible for overtime payments.
  
  
• The actual earnings women get from overtime working are only 40% of those received by men in the survey. Reasons for the difference may include women's domestic responsibilities and the lack of adequate childcare facilities.
  
  
• Even when women are eligible for other premium payments, these are likely in practice to have less than half the value of payments made to their male colleagues.
  
  
• The value of pay additions such as bonuses to male manual workers in the public sector means that their actual earnings frequently exceed those of large numbers of female white-collar workers, even though the men's basic pay levels are considerably lower.

Monitoring for gender equality

• Only a small minority of business units audit their pay arrangements for gender disadvantage; however the likelihood of gender monitoring seems to increase with the size of the organisation.
  
  
• In the public sector, although basic pay levels are generally monitored, other basic aspects of the pay package, such as bonus pay in district councils, are not subject to regular auditing.
  
  
• Aspects of pay determination show a disturbing lack of openness in many organisations.
  
  
• While only a very small minority of organisations have taken equal pay or equal pay value initiatives in the last five years, equal pay cases of collective bargaining have provided the impetus for initiating and promoting these changes in the majority of cases.