Ireland’s Gender Wage Gap, Past and Present

Abstract

This paper first provides a brief survey of research on the gender wage gap in Ireland, particularly in The Economic and Social Review. It then documents recent research on how the gender wage gap varies across the wage distribution; the gap now appears to be greatest for high earners, for whom it also tends to be largely unexplained by human capital variables. Finally, it uses a combination of recent research results and some descriptive analysis of the Labour Force Survey to consider the potential importance of occupation in explaining the gender wage gap. It concludes with a call for further research in the area.