Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2018

Figure 7.1 illustrates the differences in female labour between Irish firms and FDI firms. The figure shows relatively lower percentages of female labour in the information and communication sector as well as manufacturing. The only two sectors with higher female participation are FDI retail firms and Irish financial and insurance activities firms.

Figure 7.2 shows female labour in firms that are recipients of FDI from three of Ireland’s principal investors (the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany). Firms with investment from the United Kingdom are more likely to employ women as seen in the graph; a great deal of firms that receive FDI from the United Kingdom are retailers. This result is indicative of the Figure 7.1 which shows FDI retailers to have high female employment.

Figure 7.3 shows the percentages of female employment in firms that are recipients of FDI from three of Ireland’s principal investors (the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany) by sector.  

Figure 7.4 shows the difference (average male wages minus average female wages) between wages across various sectors in the Irish economy for both Irish firms and FDI receiving firms. Across all sectors, for both Irish and FDI firms, average male wages are higher as illustrated by all the bars being positive. The sector with the highest disparity is the financial and insurance activities with the Irish firms having an even greater difference in average wages by gender than FDI receiving firms; this is despite the fact that over 50% of the employees in this sector (for Irish firms) are women, as seen in Figure 7.1.

Figure 7.5 shows the wage differences in firms that are recipients of FDI from three of Ireland’s principal investors by sector. As illustrated, the differences are all positive and so average male wages are higher across all the sectors for the countries described.

Figure 7.6 shows wage growth for men and women in Irish firms across selected sectors. For Irish firms, the average female wages are rising faster than the average male wages in all of the sectors except for administrative and support services.

Figure 7.7 shows FDI associated wage growth by gender and sector. With the exception of retail, average female wages are growing faster than average male wages.