One in five Irish employers see pay transparency rules as unnecessary burden

One in five Irish employers (21%) see incoming pay transparency rules as an unnecessary burden, according to our latest survey. Almost half (48%) said the rules would have a neutral impact on their organisation, while only three in ten (31%) anticipated a positive effect. The rules require employers to disclose salary ranges and strengthen equal pay enforcement to reduce gender pay gaps.

The findings, based on a poll of 500 employers at our recent Employment Law Top Tips webinar, come as Ireland faces delays in transposing the EU Pay Transparency Directive by its 7 June deadline. 16 of the 27 EU Member States have published no implementing legislation. Ireland is expected to adopt a phased approach, starting with pre-employment obligations including salary disclosure in job advertisements.

Ger Connolly, Employment Law Partner, said many employers are underestimating the scale of the change. He said:

"Pay transparency is fundamentally different from our existing gender pay gap reporting framework, which captures the average difference between male and female earnings across an organisation. Pay transparency goes further. It requires employers to classify workers and show that employees doing equal work or work of equal value receive equal pay based on gender-neutral criteria. We are helping clients build these frameworks now, so they are not trying to retrofit them once the rules take effect. Employers who wait to act will find the heavy lifting has been deferred, not avoided.”

New Retirement Policies

The survey also found that nearly half of Irish employers (49%) have not reviewed their retirement policies in response to the Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025, expected to come into force later this year.

The new retirement age rules give employees the right to request to remain in work beyond a company retirement age where that age falls below the State pension age, currently 66. There will be 1.6 million people aged 65 and over in Ireland in 15 years’ time so this is likely to be an increasingly challenging issue from employers. With several other legislative changes taking effect simultaneously, many employers are yet to fully assess what is required of them.

Kady O'Connell, Employment Law Partner, said the window to prepare is narrowing. She commented:

"Retirement ages must be objectively justifiable. When a request comes in under the new Act, employers will have one month to respond in writing with detailed reasons. Failure to do so is a criminal offence. Get it wrong and the employee can remain in employment and/or bring a claim worth up to two years' remuneration or €40,000. We are advising clients to conduct retirement audits, to assess how many of their employees are who is approaching retirement age and stress-test whether their existing retirement age can still be objectively justified. It is also critical for organisations to start preparing managers to handle such requests correctly.”

Remote Working

On remote working, almost half of employers surveyed (44%) believe the current remote working framework is falling short, despite a Government review concluding it is working as intended.

The result comes in the wake of a statutory two-year review of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023, which governs the right to request remote working.

Kady O’Connell noted:

“The review found that the legislation is functioning well, with 94% of remote working requests approved or partly approved and employers reporting low administrative burden in handling requests. Importantly from a business perspective, employers retain discretion to refuse requests on business grounds. Most issues we are seeing arise around the process for considering requests rather than the decision itself.”

Ger Connolly added:

"There is a persistent misunderstanding here. The law gives employees the right to ask to work remotely. It does not give them the right to demand it. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) can only assess whether an employer followed the correct procedural steps when refusing a request; it cannot overturn a refusal on its merits. With the WRC Code of Practice now being updated, employers whose policies are more than two years old should revisit them. We are helping clients review their policies and ensure decisions are well documented. We also facilitate training for managers to apply the Code consistently. Where that is done well, employers are in a strong position to manage requests and reduce the risk of challenge."

Our Head of Employment Law & Benefits, Melanie Crowley, joined Anton Savage on Newstalk FM to discuss the findings. Find out more or read about the survey findings on The Irish Times.

Learn more about the EU Pay Transparency Directive