Summary: <br> <a href="https://twitter.com/HollyCairnsTD" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">Holly Cairns</a> is the Social Democrats spokesperson on agriculture, food and the marine, and further and higher education and disability.<br> <br> <br> <br> In the interview, Holly questioned the source of figures that indicated that the difference in earnings between men and women was concentrated in the over-40s, with no statistically-significant difference in earnings for those under 40. This information comes from the same Eurostat studies that Holly draws her 14 per cent earnings difference from; <a href="https://www.thejournal.ie/gender-pay-gap-ireland-statistics-facts-3133536-Dec2016/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">the Journal have an excellent article on it here</a>, which includes this graph:<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <a href="https://blog.hereshow.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Holly-Cairns-scaled.jpg" data-wpel-link="internal"></a><br> <br> <br> <br> The same article notes that among full-time workers:<br> <br> <br> <br> women, on average, work fewer hours each month than men – 129 as opposed to 149.<br> <br> <br> <br> So men work 20 hours more per month, almost exactly one hour per day. That creates a difference between the gender earnings gap and the gender pay gap – with the latter adjusted to reflect the difference in working hours.<br> <br> <br> <br> Figures on the pay gap are sometimes also adjusted to account for qualifications and years of experience, but are generally not adjusted to reflect what happens during those years, such as the difference in working hours.<br> <br> <br> <br> As Holly noted, all these figures are typically calculated based on full-time workers only, bypassing the fact that part-time work is dominated by women.<br> <br> <br> <br> The most dangerous professions, as calculated by the US department of Labor is as follows:<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> *****<br> <br> <br> <br> I try to steer away from jargon on this podcast, but I’ve got two jargon words to give you here. The words are MUP and BOGOF.<br> <br> <br> <br> Before I tell you what those mean, let me apologise for the background noise. I’m not in my usual little back bedroom improvised studio at the moment, I’ve managed to get away, so I’m complying with all the covid regulations by self-isolating by the seaside. On a small Greek island. Good weather, nice beaches, small taverns, cheap wine. Try not to be jealous.<br> <br> <br> <br> But maybe you should be a bit jealous of the cheap wine. That brings me to MUP, that sands for minimum unit pricing, the unit in question being a unit of alcohol. The cabinet recently signed off on proposals to bring in minimum unit pricing from next January, so that there will be a floor price below which alcohol can’t be sold to consumers.<br> <br> <br> <br> Because alcohol is much dearer in pubs, when we have pubs, this really just affects off-licences and supermarkets that sell wine, beer and spirits. This idea has been knocking around for a while; it first came to prominence in Ireland in the 2011 Fine Gale manifesto, I’ll read what they said verbatim:<br> <br> <br> <br> Supporting Irish Pubs: Fine Gael recognises the importance of the Irish pub for tourism, rural jobs and as a social outlet in communities across the country. We will support the local pub by banning the practice of below cost selling on alcohol, particularly by large supermarkets and the impact this has had on alcohol consumption and the viability of pubs.<br> <br> <br> <br> ‘The viability of pubs’ – so, it was clear that this was a measure to support the viability of one business at the expense of another. Publicans, who make vast profits, have huge political power; quite a few TDs are publicans themselves.
