Exploring the Irish Gender Earnings Gap Story

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A brief overview of gender pay gap in Ireland Explored via Closeread. Find the repo here

How unequal are annual earnings between men and women?

In 2024, administrative payroll data provides a near-complete picture of annual earnings in Ireland.Unlike survey data, these figures are derived directly from employer tax records.

This is not a sample. It is the observed structure of the labour market. Today we examine one question: How unequal are annual earnings between men and women?

Life-Cycle Earnings Profiles : Administrative payroll data from the Central Statistics Office indicate that mean annual earnings increase with age for both men and women, peaking between ages 40–49.However, gender differences are observable at every stage. Two empirical patterns emerge: 1) Earnings follow a standard life-cycle profile (Mincer-type trajectory). 2) The gender gap widens markedly after age 30.

Expansion of the Gender Differential : The absolute earnings gap widens markedly after age 30. The divergence is not linear; it accelerates during mid-career stages. International evidence from the OECD indicates that gender wage gaps frequently expand after early career stages, particularly in economies with high returns to seniority and occupational progression (OECD, 2023).

Gender Earnings Gap by Age Group (%) : The Gap Narrows Briefly, Then Expands.The smallest proportional gap appears at ages 25–29.However, this narrowing is temporary.From age 30 onward, the gap widens consistently across every cohort. The data shows a clear inflection point between early career and mid-career progression.

Means can be misleading Does the pattern still hold up when we compare medians rather than means? The pattern still holds even while comparing medians. The median earnings for each group differs from the average , overall we can see that median earnings are lower than the mean annual earnings

Indicator of Earnings Dispersion : The mean–median [Mean-Median] gap measures how far the average earnings exceed the midpoint of the distribution.The median represents the typical earner — 50% earn above it, 50% below.The mean is pulled upward by very high earners.When the mean is higher than the median, the distribution is right-skewed — meaning a smaller group of high earners raises the overall average. In this chart, the gap widens steadily with age:For men, it increases from roughly €1,000 (15–24) to nearly €17,000–€18,000 (50–59).For women, it rises from about €1,500 to roughly €10,000 in mid-to-late career.This widening gap indicates that earnings dispersion grows over the life cycle — particularly at the top of the distribution.

Employment Rate: Employment rates are nearly identical across genders in 2024, remaining within a narrow 49–52% range across all age groups. This aligns with data from the Central Statistics Office, which shows strong and converging labour force participation in recent years. A small divergence appears in the 25–39 age group, where male employment slightly exceeds female employment — a pattern consistent with findings from the OECD that participation gaps tend to widen temporarily during child-rearing years. However, from ages 40–59, employment rates converge again.

Conclusion

The gender earnings gap widens steadily over the life cycle, rising from 12.3% in early career to 30.9% by age 60+. While the gap is modest at labour market entry, it expands sharply from age 30 onward, peaking in later career stages.Since employment percentages are broadly similar across genders, this widening gap cannot be explained by participation alone. Instead, the pattern suggests cumulative effects linked to career progression, seniority, sectoral distribution, and wage dispersion over time.