Equal Pay Audit 2017

As part of the Athena SWAN process, an Equal Pay Audit was conducted in 2017 comparing the pay of academic and research staff across the University.  The audit was concerned with one important aspect of potential discrimination in employment i.e. unequal pay for equal work. 

An Equal Pay Audit is the most effective way of establishing whether UL is providing equal pay and rewarding employees’ fairly, in practice, and is an effective demonstration of action to promote equal pay under the terms of our equality duties. 

The Equal Pay Audit involved:

• The comparison of pay of men and women doing equal (or rated equivalent) work

• The identification of any equal pay gaps

• The explanation and justification of gaps using objective criteria

• The addressing of any gaps that cannot satisfactorily be explained on the grounds of work content

• Ongoing monitoring 

The gender pay gap was calculated using the mean and median salaries of female and male employees doing work of equal value. The pay gap was calculated for both the mean and median salaries.

The findings established that the rate of pay for all academic and research staff was equal for both genders who have similar experience and who are carrying out equal or equivalent duties. To that extent, no or negligible difference (due to the multiplier used i.e. staff on sabbatical for part of a year etc.) between the actual salary for both female and male Staff.

The conclusion of the gender pay audit therefore was that there are no issues of inequality in pay between female and male Academic Staff.

A review of support/professional staff salaries will be undertaken in 2018 and a further audit will be conducted on academic and research staff salaries. 

A copy of the Equal Pay Audit is available here: http://www.ul.ie/hr/athena-swan