Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2017

Figure 5.2 shows male and female labour in firms that are recipients of FDI from Ireland’s three principal investors (United States, United Kingdom and Germany). UK firms are more likely to employ women as seen in the figure below; as a great deal of firms that receive FDI from the UK are retailers (as seen in Figure 3.4), this result is indicative of the Figure 5.1 which shows FDI retailers to have high female employment.

In Figure 5.3 the percentages of female employment in firms that are recipients of FDI from Ireland’s three principal investors (United States, United Kingdom and Germany) are shown by sector.  

Table 5.2 lists the average wage of workers in FDI receiving firms by gender across various sectors in the Irish economy. In each sector the average male wage is higher than the average female wage.

Figure 5.5 shows the wage differences in firms that are recipients of FDI from Ireland’s three principal investors and by sector. As illustrated, the differences are all positive indicating that male wages are higher across all the sectors and for all the countries described.

Figure 5.6 illustrates wage growth for men and women across sectors. With the exception of the retail and financial and insurance activities, average female wages are growing at a faster rate than average male pay in FDI firms.

The disparities in female to male employment as evidenced by the above graphs and table is widened at the senior executive and CEO level as seen in the CSO’s Gender Balance in Business Survey.