Ireland is an expensive place to be a mother because the earning power of mothers suffers compared with men, 
according to a new report [1] by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
According to the report, entitled Closing the Gender Gap: Act Now, the arrival of children has a more drastic impact on the earning abilities of Irish women than anywhere else in Europe.
This is because younger Irish women out-earn their male counterparts by 17 percent, which is a far greater margin than anywhere else in the OECD, but this pay gap is reversed in favour of men once women decide to have children.
From earning 17 per cent more than men when they have no children, Irish women aged 25-44 go to taking home 14 per cent less in their pay packet when they have children, the report finds.
However, the overall gender pay gap in Ireland is in line with the EU average.
Researchers say Irish women start their careers earning well because they are generally better qualified than men. But once they give birth, they are more likely than women in other countries to withdraw from the workforce.
The report claims that high childcare costs sometimes mean “that it is not economically worthwhile for women to work full-time” and that women are more likely to work part-time in countries with high childcare costs.
However, CSO figures show that nearly three quarters of Irish women who work part time are happy to do so.
According to the most recent Quarterly Household Survey, only 26pc of women in part-time work would prefer to work more hours.
In addition, our gender pay gap is the same as Sweden’s even though Sweden has State-subsidised child-care and makes heavy use of gender quotas.
Commenting on the report, Willem Aderna of the OECD said: “For many years now, Irish women have had a higher level of educational attainment than men.
“As a result, they are far more likely to work in well-paying sectors such as law and accountancy. Because Ireland’s public sector is smaller than, say, Sweden’s, they are more likely to work in the private sector where wages are higher.”
However, in Ireland, public sector pay levels are higher on average than private sector pay levels and women are far more likely than men to work as nurses and teachers.