AN INCREASE IN Ireland’s minimum wage is set to come into effect today.
The minimum wage is rising by 80 cent to €13.50 an hour, a bump of 6.3%.
It means that a full-time worker receiving minimum wage would now earn an additional €30 a week or €1,600 across the year (before tax).
However, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has criticised that the new minimum wage is still worth less than 60% of median earnings – a benchmark for pursuing a new national living wage to replace the minimum wage.
“There is no place in a modern, rich country like Ireland for any worker to be paid below the 60% poverty line,” ICTU general secretary Owen Reidy said.
“Momentum must be maintained by the new government to meet the agreed 60% target in 12 months, with a view to setting a subsequent target of 66% thereafter – a target reached in the UK last April by a Tory government,” Reidy said.
“The National Minimum Wage turns 25 in 2025. Doomsayers predicted when it was first introduced in 2000, and every year the rate goes up, that it will bankrupt businesses and cost jobs. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now,” he said in a statement.
“Trade unions have never denied sector specific challenges and that some businesses will have further to travel than others in bringing working conditions in line with the norm across Europe. Vulnerable but viable businesses should be supported. But those business supports should be targeted, time-limited and agreed through dialogue with the social partners. Workers cannot be left to pick up the bill for reducing the cost of doing business.”
In addition to the minimum wage increase, several bumps in social welfare payments are set to take effect today, among other changes as part of Budget 2025:
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