IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ese/cempwp/cempa6-25.html

How has gender income inequality in Ireland and the UK changed and why?

Author

Listed:
  • Popova, Daria
  • Avram, Silvia
  • Doorley, Karina
  • Keane, Claire

Abstract

We examine the evolution of the gender income gap in UK and Ireland between 2008 and 2019 by income decile and decompose it to evaluate the relative importance of gender differences in working hours, self-employment, and hourly pay, as well as the redistributive effect of the tax-benefit system. We find that the biggest driver of the gender income gap in both countries is gender differences in employment/self-employment and working hours. These differences are especially large in the lower half of the income distribution, but their gradual reduction over the period we study led to a closing of the income gap in both countries. In contrast, the gender gap in hourly wages is more important in the middle and upper middle part of the income distribution, especially in the UK. The redistributive effect of the tax-benefit system by gender has fallen in the UK due to austerity measures but slightly increased in Ireland, primarily as a result of increased taxation. Further policy initiatives to align the employment rate and work hours of men and women in both countries could substantially reduce the gender gap in income in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Popova, Daria & Avram, Silvia & Doorley, Karina & Keane, Claire, 2025. "How has gender income inequality in Ireland and the UK changed and why?," Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis Working Paper Series CEMPA6/25, Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:cempwp:cempa6-25
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/working-papers/cempa/cempa6-25.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Katrin Elborgh-Woytek & Monique Newiak & Kalpana Kochhar & Stefania Fabrizio & Kangni R Kpodar & Philippe Wingender & Benedict J. Clements & Gerd Schwartz, 2013. "Women, Work, and the Economy; Macroeconomic Gains from Gender Equity," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 13/10, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Sara Cantillon & Brian Nolan, 2001. "Poverty Within Households: Measuring Gender Differences Using Nonmonetary Indicators," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 5-23.
    3. Olivier Bargain & Tim Callan, 2010. "Analysing the effects of tax-benefit reforms on income distribution: a decomposition approach," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(1), pages 1-21, March.
    4. Michelle Barrett & Karina Doorley & Paul Redmond & Barra Roantree, 2022. "How Has the Gender Earnings Gap in Ireland Changed in Thirty Years?," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-21, August.
    5. Martin Browning & Pierre-André Chiappori & Valérie Lechene, 2010. "Distributional Effects in Household Models: Separate Spheres and Income Pooling," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(545), pages 786-799, June.
    6. Mike Brewer & Iva Valentinova Tasseva, 2021. "Did the UK policy response to Covid-19 protect household incomes?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(3), pages 433-458, September.
    7. De Agostini, Paula & Hills, John & Sutherland, Holly, 2018. "Were we really all in it together? The distributional effects of the 2010-2015 UK Coalition government's tax-benefit policy changes," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 82895, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Ms. Katrin Elborgh-Woytek & Ms. Monique Newiak & Ms. Kalpana Kochhar & Ms. Stefania Fabrizio & Mr. Kangni R Kpodar & Mr. Philippe Wingender & Mr. Benedict J. Clements & Mr. Gerd Schwartz, 2013. "Women, Work, and the Economy: Macroeconomic Gains from Gender Equity," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 2013/010, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Browning, Martin & Francois Bourguignon & Pierre-Andre Chiappori & Valerie Lechene, 1994. "Income and Outcomes: A Structural Model of Intrahousehold Allocation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1067-1096, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Karina Doorley & Claire Keane, 2024. "Tax-benefit systems and the gender gap in income," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 22(2), pages 285-309, June.
    2. Doorley, Karina & Bercholz, Maxime & Callan, Tim & Keane, Claire & Walsh, John R., 2018. "The gender impact of Irish budgetary policy 2008-2018," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT367.
    3. O'Donoghue, Cathal & Doorley, Karina & Sologon, Denisa M., 2024. "Gender Difference in Household Consumption: Some Convergence over Three Decades," IZA Discussion Papers 16852, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Keane, Claire & Callan, Tim & Walsh, John, 2015. "Gender Impact of Tax and Benefit Changes: A Microsimulation Approach," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT275.
    5. Donni, Olivier & Molina, José Alberto, 2018. "Household Collective Models: Three Decades of Theoretical Contributions and Empirical Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 11915, IZA Network @ LISER.
    6. Tendai Zawaira & Matthew Clance & Carolyn Chisadza & Rangan Gupta, 2021. "Financial Inclusion and Gender Inequality in sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 202167, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    7. Isabel Pardo-Garcia & Francisco Escribano Sotos, 2014. "Participation of Women in the Labor Market in Europe and Informal Care Hours," Business and Management Research, Business and Management Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(4), pages 73-81, December.
    8. Jinjing Li & Yogi Vidyattama & Hai Anh La & Riyana Miranti & Denisa M. Sologon, 2022. "Estimating the Impact of Covid-19 and Policy Responses on Australian Income Distribution Using Incomplete Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 1-31, July.
    9. Sever, Can, 2025. "Legal gender equality as a catalyst for convergence," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 376-391.
    10. P. K. Mishra & S. K. Mishra & M. K. Sarangi, 2020. "Do Women’s Advancement and Gender Parity Promote Economic Growth? Evidence from 30 Asian Countries," Millennial Asia, , vol. 11(1), pages 5-26, April.
    11. Sinha, Aashima & Kumar Sedai, Ashish & Bahadur Rahut, Dil & Sonobe, Tetsushi, 2024. "Well-being costs of unpaid care: Gendered evidence from a contextualized time-use survey in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    12. Taniya Ghosh & Sanika Sulochani Ramanayake, 2018. "Women empowerment and good times: Which one leads to the other?," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2018-004, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    13. Ostry, Jonathan D. & Espinoza, Raphael & Papageorgiou, Chris, 2019. "The Armistice of the Sexes: Gender Complementarities in the Production Function," CEPR Discussion Papers 13792, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Taniya Ghosh & Sanika S. Ramanayake, 2021. "The macroeconomics of gender equality," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(2), pages 1955-1977, April.
    15. Oren Griffiths & Lynette Roberts & Josh Price, 2019. "Desirable leadership attributes are preferentially associated with women: A quantitative study of gender and leadership roles in the Australian workforce," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 44(1), pages 32-49, February.
    16. Laurens Cherchye & Thomas Demuynck & Bram De Rock, 2011. "Revealed Preference Analysis of Non‐Cooperative Household Consumption," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(555), pages 1073-1096, September.
    17. Thomas, Margo & Córdova-Novion, César & de Haan, Arjan & de León, Gimena & Forest, Maxime & Iyer, Sandhya S., 2018. "Gender mainstreaming: A strategic approach," Economics Discussion Papers 2018-61, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    18. Bönke, Timm & Harnack, Astrid & Wetter, Miriam, 2019. "Wer gewinnt? Wer verliert? Die Entwicklung auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt seit den frühen Jahren der Bundesrepublik bis heute," Discussion Papers 2019/4, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    19. Doorley, Karina & Callan, Tim & Savage, Michael, 2018. "Inequality in EU crisis countries. How effective were automatic stabilisers?," EUROMOD Working Papers EM10/18, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    20. John Ermisch & Chiara Pronzato, 2008. "Intra-Household Allocation of Resources: Inferences from Non-resident Fathers' Child Support Payments," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(527), pages 347-362, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ese:cempwp:cempa6-25. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jonathan Nears (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rcessuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.