Pay equality/Length of service

Recliner

A colleague of mine says that everyone doing the same job should be paid the very same under Irish employment law. I would have thought that base pay starting out for everyone would be the same, but that experience and pay increases based on yearly performance reviews would mean that after a while, different people doing the same job would be paid different amounts. He disagrees totally and says that any company paying employees different wages for the same work are breaking the law.  He is basing this argument on the fact that men and women have to be paid the same for doing the same job so that extends to all workers. Is he right?

meeeeh

Complete nonsense. In public service payscales I think are set which mean every common house plant can earn as much as someone working hard and making difference.

You are not allowed to discriminate on basis of gender but if one is better at their job or better negotiating their wages than that's fair.

Recliner

He is talking about the private sector though, not public. I don't think this makes a difference though.

OMM 0000

Your colleague is wrong. You can't discriminate based on things like age, gender, etc. but you can "discriminate" based on things like education and skill level.

If Joe and Mary have both been employed by McBurger for 10 years, and Mary has better negotiating skills, is better at her job, and has a better education, she will almost certainly be earning more money than Joe.

bingbong500

He's full of it.