Gender Pay Gap Report 2022

Introduction and Executive Summary

As a University driven by ‘People First’ principles, DCU is deeply committed to promoting Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Our aim is to build a shared culture, across our full staff community,  that is diverse, open and inclusive, where all perspectives, backgrounds and experiences are valued. At the heart of our Strategic Plan 2017 – 2022 “Talent, Discovery and Transformation”  are nine Strategic Goals and in line with Goal 5 ‘To Value and Develop our Staff Community’ the university aims to establish and develop this shared culture (‘One DCU’).  A culture that is inclusive at all levels and in every system and process, where faculty, staff and students demand the highest standards from each other.

As an employer of over 1,700 whole time equivalent employees, this is the first time we are required to publish a Gender Pay Gap report in accordance with the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021. 

This, initial report, is an important resource for the University and will help inform future actions related to the University's EDI work. DCU welcomes the opportunity to share this data and is committed to working with colleagues and stakeholders both within DCU and, from across the Higher Education Sector, to ensure that progress is maintained. Gathering this data helps to deepen our understanding of where there are areas for improvement but also where our current initiatives are working well and achieving positive results.

Under the legislation, the Gender Pay Gap is the gap between the average hourly wage of men and women across a workforce. It is expressed as a  percentage of men's pay. It does not indicate or identify discrimination, or bias, or a pay equity issue, or an imbalance in the university’s pay structures and policies . It is a means of capturing whether women are represented evenly across the organisation.

DCU as a public sector employer has salary scales and hourly rates of pay for specific roles/grades and work. We pay all our employees in line with their qualifications and experience, irrespective of gender . We are consistent and transparent in our pay determination procedures, which we use to ensure there is no unequal pay or unconscious bias. In this regard, we believe we are an equal and fair employer.

Our report is based on snapshot data as of 30th June 2022. It covers payments made, to those employed on 30th June 2022, during the 12 month period July 2021 – June 2022.  Those employed includes salaried employees, and casual part-time employees who claim payment for hours worked. Not all data for claim payments (13% of relevant staff) could be included in our GPG analysis due to the way this data is currently captured on our systems.  Work is underway to ensure this data will be available for our next GPG report in 2023.

Our overall gender pay gap is 10.45% and when we adjust to look at salaried staff it reduces to 9.51%. We are, therefore, below the national gender pay gap  average of 11.3%.

We recognise that addressing DCU’s Gender Pay Gap is not something that is done quickly or by the introduction of a single measure. Rather it is a multifaceted journey of continuous improvement, involving practical steps to remove barriers that women may face, as well as changing attitudes and behaviours through the engagement of our full community. By placing diversity and inclusion as a priority in all people matters, we aim to improve the diversity of our organisation across all levels.

This report sets out our gender pay gap results by:

• mean gender pay gap in hourly pay
• median gender pay gap in hourly pay
• proportion of men and women in each pay quartile

Note – there is no data on bonus or benefit in kind payments, included in our GPG metrics, as these are not paid by the University.

DCU’s Gender Pay Gap metrics are calculated in line with the regulations outlined in the legislation.

What is the Gender Pay Gap?

The Gender Pay Gap is the gap between what is earned on average by women, and men, based on average gross hourly earnings of all paid employees. It does not indicate or identify discrimination or bias, or even an absence of equal pay for equal value work. It is a means of capturing whether women are represented evenly across the organisation.

The GPG is expressed as a percentage of men's pay. A positive gender pay gap shows that the female staff typically have lower pay than male employees.

What is the difference between Unequal Pay and the Gender Pay Gap?

The gender pay gap is different from ‘equal pay’.  Equal pay requires that men and women who carry out the same or similar jobs; or work of equal value, are paid the same. Paying women less than men for the same job, purely on account of their gender, is illegal and is outlawed by equality legislation.

The gender pay gap explores pay regardless of what the pay rate is for a particular job/grade/role.  It is about what is earned on average by women and men based on average gross hourly earnings of all paid employees. 

Median Gender Pay Gap

The median (mid-point) gender pay gap compares the hourly pay of the female in the middle to the hourly pay of the man in the middle if all employees were lined up by female and male, in order of pay from highest to lowest. 

Mean Gender Pay Gap

The mean (average) gender pay gap shows the difference in the average hourly rate of pay between men and women. The total pay of all men, divided by the number of men, is compared to women on the same basis.

What causes a Gender Pay Gap if there is equal Pay?

As different jobs pay differently and the number of men and women performing these jobs varies, a gender pay gap emerges if, for example, more men are in higher paid roles or more women are in lower paid roles.

How are pay quartiles calculated?

The quartiles analysis ranks men and women from the lowest to highest earners. This is then divided into four even groups to show the proportions of men and women in each of these four earnings groups.

What’s included in our calculations?

The pay gap data includes ordinary pay paid to employees in the 12 months up to June 2022 i.e. basic pay, allowances, overtime, pay for leave, shift premium pay.

It is important to note that the DCU Gender Pay Gap is below the national average of 11.3 per cent.

GPG Metrics for all Staff, including part-time casual employees at 30^th June 2022 (total of 1,845 employees)

GPG for Salaried Staff at 30^th June 2022 (total of 1,597 relevant employees)

PTE = Part Time Employees

Temp = Temporary Employees

Quartile Analysis

Our overall gender pay gap is 10.45% and when we adjust to look at salaried staff it reduces to 9.51%.  DCU’s workforce is 55.49% female with 54% of senior management positions filled by women. DCU remains committed to developing female talent across the organisation and in leadership positions. This is reflected in the GPG quartile analysis for both all staff and salaried staff whereby there is almost 50:50 distribution of females in the middle and upper earning groups. The gender pay gap, therefore, appears to be driven by the greater number of female earners in the lower quartile earning groups when looking at total staff and the higher number of salaried staff who are male.

Over the next 12 months, we will continue to analyse our gender pay gap data, by level, by role type, and by school/unit. This will assist us in understanding what we need to focus on to reduce the gender pay gap in the years ahead.

Ongoing Activities & Actions

What is DCU doing to address its Gender Pay Gap?
We encourage gender equality across the University and our commitments to improving gender equality have included the following actions, which have been important steps in the right direction:

• Ensuring that there is a balanced gender mix involved in all stages of the recruitment process
• Using software to assess language neutrality and bias in our recruitment adverts
• Gender and Women in Leadership initiatives - a core component of DCU’s EDI work

DCU is very proud to have a  wide-range of initiatives and actions that support the University’s commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and that aims to be inclusive at all levels, and embraces and celebrates our visible and invisible differences. Below are some examples of this work. 

Athena Swan
DCU has been engaging with the Athena Swan charter since its establishment in Ireland in 2015. DCU currently holds a Bronze institutional award; having first received it in 2017 and again in 2020. As we work towards a Silver award, an ambitious gender action plan is being implemented at a university level to address challenges and gaps surrounding gender inequality identified through our last self-assessment in 2020. DCU also holds four departmental level Bronze awards which supports gender equality at a local level. 

Women in Leadership
The DCU Women in Leadership initiative was launched in 2015 against the backdrop of notable gender imbalance across the Higher Education sector. The vision for the Women in Leadership Initiative at DCU has always been for our University to explicitly value women as leaders and ensure that women at DCU are supported and encouraged to achieve their full potential.

Since the establishment of the Women in Leadership initiative in 2015, there has been an increase in female representation across all academic grades, most notably at Full Professor level where female representation has jumped from 21% in 2015 to 35% in 2021. In 2021, we continued to see an increase in female representation at Full Professor (33% to 35%) and Professor (39% to 40%) levels.

Since its launch, a wide range of formal and informal activities have been facilitated including the Mary McAleese Lecture Series, Listening Lunches and funding for research projects on the impact of maternity leave on academic careers. As part of the Women in Leadership initiative, multiple programmes for female career progression have been implemented: 

Aurora Leadership Development Programme
Aurora, a leadership development programme for women, was designed to help address the issue of the under-representation of women in senior posts in the higher education sector. The objective of the programme is to embed a leadership mindset whereby women identify as leaders and seek appropriate opportunities to develop capabilities, skills and networks to support them in their developing careers. Since 2015, 83 female staff within DCU have participated in Aurora, with 46% of those moving into more senior positions within the university in the aftermath. 

Vista Professional Development Programme
In December 2020, DCU successfully led a collaboration with University of Galway and DkIT and were awarded funding under the Higher Education Authority (HEA) Gender Equality Enhancement Fund to develop Vista - a formal self-development programme for women at mid-career stage, both professional and academic, in the higher education sector. A total of 30 participants from three institutions (DCU, DkIT and University of Galway) took part in the six month pilot programme in 2021-2022; with 30 more participants currently taking part in the second iteration of the programme. 

Preparing for Academic  Advancement (PAA) Programme
In 2021 DCU was successful in our joint application for funding to run the PAA (Preparing for Academic Advancement) with the University of Limerick. The programme is specifically for academics at Associate Professor level who are ready and credible challengers for promotion to Professor. To date, five female staff within DCU have engaged with the programme; 2 in 2021 and 3 in 2022.

Senior Academic Leadership Initiative 
The Senior Academic Leadership Initiative (SALI) aims to accelerate progress in achieving gender balance at the senior academic level in higher education. To date, DCU has been successful in receiving funding for three Full Professors across the disciplines of Finance, Physics and Computer Science. 



View our Gender Pay Gap Report for 2023