To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps her Department is taking to tackle the gender pay gap in Northern Ireland.
Answered on
15 June 2015
In recent years the pay gap in Northern Ireland has continued to narrow. In Northern Ireland tackling the gender pay gap is mainly the responsibility of Northern Ireland Executive Ministers but the Government is also playing its part.
The gender pay gap in the UK has fallen to its lowest level ever and has been virtually eliminated among full-time workers under the age of 40, but our goal must be to eliminate it and as the Conservative Manifesto states, “we will push business to do so.” The Government is tackling systemic pay inequalities through a range of measures including extending flexible working and introducing shared parental leave.
The Conservative Manifesto makes clear this Government’s commitment to “full, genuine gender equality” and states that “we will to require companies with more than 250 employees to publish the difference between the average pay of their male and female employees.”