Who has to report
Any employer with 50 or more employees on a day in June that it chooses (the snapshot date). The count includes part-time and temporary staff, and the Department's guidance says people working abroad who are still paid by you generally count too. Employers with fewer than 50 don't report under the Irish Act.
The seven groups of figures
All of them compare women to men, worked out over the twelve months up to the snapshot date:
- The mean and median gap in hourly pay (hourly remuneration) for everyone
- The same two figures for part-time employees
- The same two figures for people on temporary contracts
- The mean and median gap in bonus pay (bonus remuneration)
- The percentage of women and of men who received a bonus
- The percentage of women and of men who received extras like a company car (benefit in kind)
- The percentage of women and of men in each of four pay quarters (quartile pay bands)
"Mean" is the average. "Median" is the middle person. A gap of 11.4% means women's figure is 11.4% lower than men's.
The statement
Alongside the figures you publish, in your own words, the reasons you think the gap exists and the measures you are taking or plan to take to reduce it. It doesn't need to be long. It does need to be honest.
The dates
Pick a snapshot date in June. Publish the report on your website within five months of it, so by November, and keep it there for three years. From 2026 you also submit the same figures and statement on the Government's Gender Pay Gap Portal, an online form. Once the Department has checked a report, anyone can search and compare it with other employers' reports; a report isn't shown publicly where there are fewer than two women or two men.
GapFile shows these as your own dates and reminds you calmly, without countdowns. Work out your dates.
How hourly pay is worked out
Hourly pay (hourly remuneration) is everything counted as ordinary pay over the twelve months to the snapshot date (basic pay, allowances, piece-work pay, shift premium and overtime), plus bonus pay (bonus, commission, profit share), divided by the hours worked in those twelve months. Extras like a company car are reported separately, as the share of people who got one, and never go inside hourly pay. The regulations set the exact method, and GapFile's rules engine follows them, with every year's rules kept so an old report can be reproduced.
Coming, date not set: the EU Pay Transparency Directive
The Directive (2023/970) adds: the starting pay or its range given to job applicants before the interview (often in the advert); a worker's right to ask for pay information; grouping jobs into categories of equal value; a joint pay assessment with worker representatives where a gap of 5% or more in a category can't be explained on gender-neutral grounds and isn't put right within six months; and a shift of the burden of proof onto the employer. Under the Directive itself, employers with 150 or more people report first, by June 2027; those with 100 to 149 by June 2031. Ireland's own dates are not yet set. GapFile will build these features once the Irish rules are published and known.