Gender Pay Gap Report 2024

As a university guided by ‘People First’ principles, DCU is deeply committed to promoting Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). Our goal is to foster a cohesive culture throughout our diverse staff community—one that is inclusive, transparent, and reflective of the rich perspectives and experiences of all our members. We value diversity as a cornerstone of our success and are proud to promote inclusivity across every level of our organisation.

This year, we are pleased to present our third Gender Pay Gap (GPG) report, in compliance with the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021. The Gender Pay Gap, defined as the difference between the average hourly wage of men and women across a workforce, is an important measure of representation and progression. Rather than reflecting pay inequities or bias, it offers valuable insights into workforce composition and highlights opportunities for systemic enhancements.

Based on snapshot data as of June 30, 2024, which included a total of 2,086 employees, our GPG results demonstrate notable progress compared to 2023. The overall mean gender pay gap has decreased from 8.18% to 5.11%, and the median gender pay gap has reduced from 10.71% to 8.30%. These improvements reflect meaningful strides in advancing gender balance, particularly in higher-paying roles. For example, the proportion of women in the Upper Middle (Quartile 3) and Upper (Quartile 4) earning groups has increased to 52.45% and 53.17%, respectively, building on progress made in previous years.

The increase in the total workforce has likely influenced this progress by providing opportunities for more balanced gender representation across all pay quartiles. While ongoing efforts to create more equitable opportunities across all staff groups may have played a role, other factors could also have contributed. For instance, fluctuations in claim
payment patterns and improvements in data capture processes may have impacted the representation of earnings, particularly for part-time casual staff, further influencing the overall Gender Pay Gap results.

We acknowledge, however, that not all claim payment data could be included in this year’s GPG analysis due to limitations in the way this data is captured across our systems. While significant progress has been made, with the exclusion rate reduced to 2.8% in 2023, we continue to work toward achieving 100% inclusion of claim payments in future analyses. We remain focused on our commitment to transparency and data integrity as we strive to ensure our reporting fully reflects the diversity of our workforce.

As a public sector employer, DCU continues to adhere to structured salary scales and remains dedicated to salary parity, compensating employees based on qualifications and experience, irrespective of gender. Our pay determination procedures ensure fairness and transparency, and we take pride in being an employer that upholds principles of equality and fairness.

We recognise that addressing the Gender Pay Gap is an ongoing process requiring sustained effort. Initiatives such as the Women in Leadership suite of programmes, and our Athena Swan accreditation have been pivotal in promoting gender balance by supporting the progression and development of women into leadership roles and higher-paying positions. These initiatives aim to create a more equitable environment by addressing structural barriers, fostering professional growth, and ensuring inclusive opportunities for all genders. We remain committed to building on these efforts to achieve sustained improvements in gender representation across all levels of the organisation.

This report captures payments made to employees during the 12-month period up to June 30, 2024, and provides a detailed analysis of mean and median hourly pay gaps and the distribution of men and women across pay quartiles. We are proud of the progress made and remain committed to achieving further improvements in the years to come.

By continuing to prioritise diversity, equity, and inclusion, we aim to ensure DCU is a place where everyone can thrive, contributing to a fairer and more inclusive future for all. 

DCU welcomes the opportunity to share this data and is dedicated to collaborating with colleagues and stakeholders within DCU and across the Higher Education Sector to sustain progress. Our GPG reports serve as valuable resources, informing future actions related to our EDI efforts. Collecting this data enhances our understanding of areas for improvement and identifies the success of our current initiatives, driving positive results.

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.

GPG Metrics for all Staff, including part-time casual employees at 30th June 2024 (total of 2,086 employees)

Quartile Analysis

Gender Pay Gap Data Analysis
Our overall gender pay gap is 5.11%. DCU’s workforce is 56.38% female and 50% of the senior management team is comprised of 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.
 

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 female staff typically have lower pay than male employees.
 

Mean Gender Pay Gap
Our mean hourly gender pay gap is 5.11%. 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.

Median Gender Pay Gap
Our median hourly gender pay gap is 8.30%. 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.

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.

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.

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 2023 i.e. basic pay, allowances, overtime, pay for leave, shift premium pay. 
 

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.
• Monitoring academic promotions from a gendered perspective and putting gender quotas in place where appropriate.
• 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. In 2024, DCU attained an institutional Athena Swan Silver Award, and in doing so showcased our progress with gender equality in the past eight years. As part of this Silver accreditation, the University has a new five-year gender action plan (2024 – 2029). A key priority in this action plan is to continue to achieve appropriate gender representation across all staff categories and grades, including increasing female representation at the higher academic grades where underrepresentation currently exists, while also increasing male representation at the lower professional grades where underrepresentation exists. These efforts will contribute to a lower gender pay gap.

We will also work to enhance the tool used to calculate the gender pay gap to allow for the disaggregation of data by staff category and role type. This will allow for more detailed analysis.

Women in Leadership
The DCU Women in Leadership (WiL) 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. 

The WiL initiative has contributed to more women at leadership level in the University, with 60% Executive Dean positions held by women since 2021, and 54% of Head of School positions now held by women (and increase of 27% increase since 2016). 

There has also 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 36% in 2024. Since the establishment of gender balanced promotions at Associate Professor grade, we have seen female representation increase from 39% in 2015 to 52% in 2024.

Within the professional staff category, we have seen an increase of 2% the number of women holding professional roles that have a pay scale with maximum point above €70,000 ; having moved from 3% in 2 19 to 55% in 2023. Analysing roles that have a pay scale with maximum point on or below €70,000, we have seen a more balanced pool of men and
women in these roles; moving from 30%m:70%f in 2019 to 33%m:67%f in March 2023.

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, 128 female staff within DCU have participated in Aurora, with 46% of those moving into more senior positions within the university in the aftermath. 

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, fourteen female staff within DCU have engaged with the programme: 2 in 2021, and 4 in 2022, 2023 and 2024 respectively.



View our Gender Pay Gap Report for 2023