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ONE QUARTER OF Irish workers earned less than €450 per week in 2023.
The new figures by the Central Statistic Office (CSO) also show that 12.8% of workers had weekly earnings of €1,500 or more.
The disparity between the highest and lowest earners has increased over the last few years. The gap in weekly earnings between the bottom 10% of earners and those in the top 10% has widened from around €1,100 in 2016, to €1,400 in 2023.
Looking at age groups, the lowest increase in median weekly earnings was recorded among the 25-29 years age group, going from €644.04 in 2022 to €663.13 in 2023.
The proportion of workers in this age group has been reducing steadily since 2011, going from 14.8% in 2011 to 11.1% in 2023.
Almost two-thirds (63.2%) of people in the Accommodation & Food Services sector had weekly earnings of less than €450, while more than half (53.2%) of people in the Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services sector had similar weekly earnings.
In contrast, only 5.9% of people working in the Information & Communication sector had earnings of less than €450 per week. Meanwhile, 17% of workers in this sector had weekly earnings of €2,550 or more.
The overall average increase in earnings among all sectors in 2023 was 4.2%.
Five of the thirteen economic sectors defined by the CSO recorded growth less than this. These included Transport & Storage (2.7%), Education (3.0%), Public Administration & Defence (3.6%), Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities (3.7%), and Construction (3.8%).
In contrast, people working in the Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities sector and the Information & Communication sector had median weekly earnings increase by 6.7% and 6.6% respectively.
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Just the way they want it. No middle, just poor and very wealthy.
@Marvin Dollery: yawn
@Marvin Dollery: Which are you?
@Brendan O’Brien: sure, you accuse everyone of being everyone else anyways, lol
@offside again: Are you tired clown? If you’ve nothing constructive to say then keep quiet.
@Marvin Dollery: You said ‘No middle, just poor and very wealthy.’
It’s reasonable to ask which you are (I’m middle, therefore I don’t exist, according to you).
@Marvin Dollery: alot of people work under 20 hours to get a top up on social welfare. The quarter they speak of probably have more disposable income that people earning 6 or 7 hundred a week. Figures and stats can always be spinned.
@Brendan O’Brien: What about yourself? Can’t imagine you pay for your own keep given you’re on here night and day lying and deceiving.
@Brendan O’Brien: oh, plenty wish you didn’t, lol
@Tom Kelly: I agree with the second part of your comment Tom. The system is ripe for abuse and rewards those who walk away from full time work if they qualify.
@Marvin Dollery: your comments have this … yawn … effect on me … yawn
@offside again: More like my comments annoy you just the right amount because you’ll look worse if you attempt to play them down.
@Marvin Dollery: we only have ourselves to blame by re-electing the same governments.
@9QRixo8H: If you can’t tell the difference between a legitimate account (mine) and one who trolls to match the context of the comments then I don’t know what to say. You’re a dummy.
@Ger Whelan: Hi Ger, this “we” you speak of.. I didn’t vote them in. The comfortable folk who have it sewn up in Ireland did. They’d sell their souls to the devil for a piece of the Irish “Elite” Pie.
@Ger Whelan: who did you think was going to get elected, the Far Right? lol not a seat, again. Apparently there was anger on the streets. No such thing.
@Marvin Dollery: you’ll be fighting an uphill battle there Marvin…..d peader is only one of brennys….. any disquiet & they’ll use their standard deflection tactics & accuse you of being kevin kerr or tired jim…..pathetic I know but it’s brennys stock-in-trade
@Marvin Dollery: I didn’t vote for them either. But the majority of the people of Ireland did, so yes we as a nation keep voting in the same government
@offside again: your a great man, disinterested in the plight of lowly paid people you must be a member of the liebour party,
@Ger Whelan: I get you Ger. The only reason that happened is because the only opposition party was Sinn Féin, who cannot be trusted in power. If there had been a viable alternative party to vote for then FG and FF would have been wiped out. Perhaps next time, although it’ll likely be too late by then.
@K O: yawn
@Brendan O’Brien: just leave it out brendan, please.
@Marvin Dollery: total nonsense from Marvin the bellend, usual stuff.
@offside again: Yawn = You Always Wear Nappies. Googoo gaga.
@Marvin Dollery: hilarious. zzzzzzz
@Alex: What’s nonsense about it A-licks? What a little tosser.
@offside again: few weeks back you claimed you don’t live in this country…..said you live in France, right? Why would an article about renumeration/ wages in Ireland interest you?
@Ger Whelan: Not a majority. FG/FF received a plurality of the vote.
@Kevvy kerrr: it doesn’t. Only here for the comments. While we’re at it : does it actually interest you ?
@offside again: not particularly tbh,but if you’re only “here for the comments” why interject informative & interesting debate with all those silly juvenile ‘yawn’ & ‘ zzz’ remarks?? Seems an odd way of passing time being honest
@Ger Whelan: We DON’T elect the government, we elect the TD’s who will ultimately form the government. What is your suggestion for us to do!!
@Marvin Dollery is Frank Mccarthy, kevvy kerr and basildon Joe in this thread. He’s an agitator who works under many other names such as Tired Jim, trump24, freda people,the Doe clan and many more. He plays both sides to arguments at times having full on conversations with himself.
@Kevvy kerrr: informative & interesting debate. This is a new insight into the journal.ie coments section. But but … yawn … zzzzz
@Marvin Dollery: and Ireland
@Ger Whelan: well l didn’t vote FF FG again for another 5 years hopefully day be gone after 6 months
@Marvin Dollery: If the comfortable people of Ireland keep voting them in then they must be doing a decent job. Where did you go wrong? The majority have been able to create a comfortable life by your own admittance, why not you? Poor personal decisions on your behalf as opposed to the good decisions made by those who are comfortable?
We all lived under the same governments. It is your own personal decisions that have you and everybody else where they are.
@Sun Rise: not everyone is dealt the same hand are they ?
You’re over simplifying things.
@HisMastersAlibi: WOW brenny, thanks for that inciteful comment….. we’ve all seen through your childish deflection by now
@Frank Mc Carthy: gaslighting won’t work with me boi,you know that, don’t you Frank !
@Sun Rise: They pulled the ladder up after them. It’s all about nepotism now. Merit alone won’t get you the top gig. You’ve to play silly little games for years before any sort of “comfort”. Also, you know absolutely nothing about me, and so you just wasted your time jumping to assumptions.
@Sun Rise: Hi misery hole, didn’t you say you were an alco before ? So you haven’t made the best decisions yourself, so no need to condescend. And what it boils down to in this country is the comfortable 50+ year olds who bought a house for a reasonable price relative to the salary of the day. Now they find themselves with a small mortgage and huge asset…Everyone else since had been screwed financially or priced out of it full stop. And before you get smart I have my own home, 2 cars and a fleet of vans. You really come across as a bitter old spinster in every comment btw
@HisMastersAlibi: no matter what they say brenny I find some of your accounts simply adorable
@Frank Mc Carthy: Brendan is deplorable, he sits at home with pegs on his nips scanning the comment section for his next victim
@Frank Mc Carthy: you known very well I’m not ‘brenny’ Frank and as I said gaslighting won’t work with me. Pucker up,it’s gona get a bit rough for you boi.
@HisMastersAlibi: sure sweetie, whatever you’re having yourself brenny….. bring it on…. trolls will never win / I’ll see to that, X
@9QRixo8H: D. Peado. Where have you been? I thought you took a long walk on a short pier. Are you still screaming at the sky?
@Brendan O’Brien: we already know
Sure aint most of the country on the magical median wage of about 48k according to the government
@James Brennan: Don’t think you know what median means if you say “most of the country are on the magical median wage of about 48k”.
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: oh I sure do. But thats the line they use each and everytime the figures are published. They use median now instead of average with totally misleads the people over the actul figures. But dont let that get in the way of a snide comment.
@James Brennan: When has it ever been said “MOST of the country” are on the median wage?!?! I’ve never heard it, just the median figure…… Here’s a link to the CSO data. You can also see the different salary percentiles for yourself where the info is derived from for these types of articles
@James Brennan: it’s magical indeed its fantasy land.
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec:
Id say you of pretty low IQ…. With that comment…
And they voted FFG for even more of the same
@Kevin O Brien: full employment, and thousands of courses with 90% paid via springboard for anyone with ambition who wants to upgrade their skills.
@Johnny Wilson: that’s great but will they stay living with mammy and daddy forever, sure we’ll bring more into the country that’d hardly effect housing demand pure nonsense.
that’s a long way short of the much lauded ‘average industrial wage’, so its more likely to be figures for Minimum wage and imagine in this supposedly wealthy country that 25% of workers are earning just around the minimum. This info held back no doubt until after the election
@Gerry Ryan: average is just that, the average wage, some earn less, some earn more. Plus it’s clear which sectors provide the best salaries.
@Johnny Wilson: yes but the point is that the average is heavily skewed by a small percentage of very high earners. The average tells us nothing about the range or how many are (significantly) below average.
@Social Guy: The data is available for you to look at and see if its what you say publish it, for example I think there’s about 1m workers outside of income tax ie they don’t pay it, for what reason it’s never given.
That’s shocking when ye think of how much every single item has gone up over the last few years.
It’s actually disgusting to think we are one of the wealthiest countries in the WORLD and people are been paid buttons and rip off at every angle
@kevin rock: but more than likely these are mostly part time workers alot could be students
@Ian Cryan: be interesting to see the figures I guess
@Ian Cryan: A lot companies like ALDI, Lidl, Dunnes, Penneys etc are hiring part time ONLY! They love to talk how many people work for them, but forgot to mention the conditions!
And they have good profit, just don’t want to provide permanent full time positions.
Pharma industry for example is a lot better, just hard to get into.
The problem is that 20 years a go you could work in supermarket and earn enough to live – now it seems IMPOSSIBLE!
And please, don’t tell those people to get better jobs cause we need them! We need them all. Don’t shame and blame!
You need to go to the supermarket or need cleaner or go to the restaurant – the minimum wages didn’t cover inflation since 20 years in my opinion.
And trust me, I know the numbers – it is my job!
Regarding the CSO figures, average inflation etc this is all joke.
If the companies will not share profit and in this case I am talking about employees – just pay good wages- forget about shareholders they don’t spend all their money back in to economy!!!- we will go down big time up to the point of no return!
Same with moving all production to Asia etc.. they want us to buy the product but all jobs going to different nations – with crappy wages -just to maximise profit!
This all makes me sick!
Focus on the so called “high earners” trying to pay mortgage/rent support a family, and getting absolutely plundered and pillaged with tax, price gouging and cost of living. All while the rev comm take in more revenue than they can count, banks rolling in it and businesses are booming (playing the poor mouth at the same time ). FG truly left their mark.
Do you think it’s time to stop boasting that we’ve ‘full-employment’ yet and that it can mean very little?
@Uí Braonáin: But we are at full employment those are the facts, low wages are also a fact but we don’t know what the demographic is or what type of employment those on low wages are engaged in nor is it full time or part-time without those basic details the statistics are meaningless. Additionally those on low wages don’t pay income tax and USC would be minimal…
@Paul O’Mahoney: unemployment rate is 4.2% in October, up 0.1% from September
@Paul O’Mahoney: Thank you for a sensible comment. One has to trawl through some rubbish to find them sometimes.
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: Full employment is defined as more than 95% of the workforce in employment, the slight increase is probably 3rd level students returning to full time education.
Parity of esteem. Parity of esteem.
@Louis Jacob: apparently they hold the electorate in low esteem
@Nigel Hayden: No, they don’t. The electorate voted on Friday, and they voted for what the result is. Just because you’re political views weren’t recognised doesn’t matter the majority matters.
@Paul O’Mahoney: A plurality voted for them. Even combined FFG didn’t recieve a majority
@Louis Jacob: And that’s the democratic process we have. It allows people to vote or not vote .
@Paul O’Mahoney: Ah Paul. When you’re wrong, you should stop digging.
@Louis Jacob: Who’s wrong ?
Without giving more data, which is in the report no doubt and proper context those stats are meaningless. Eg what % of those earning under €450 per week are part time workers? A very large percentage of people working in retail and hospitality are part time workers.
@HWGAFFS: yes, thought that too…. the part time / as opposed to full time needs clarification
@Frank Mc Carthy: not much of a story if you add context though, is it? And most on here lack the ability to understand or think about how the data might be derived
@HWGAFFS: some may also not want to earn to much or they lose their welfare payments
@HWGAFFS: Of course to add more context like the percentage of part-time workers that work full time hours/week and have more than one part-time job.
@HWGAFFS: what a condescending comment.
@HWGAFFS: Considering the average weekly hours worked from all workers was nearly 33 in 2023 according to the tradingeconomics website that’s still an abysmal figure.
@lastfewchocices: it’s a valid question the data hasn’t given a breakdown, if someone was on 450 a week working 20 hrs isn’t really 450 a week.
@Uí Braonáin: I was reading a Revenue report recently and it showed that there is more people working in jobs than jobs , which would indicate that people are filling gaps in jobs , but the data isn’t given but it was substantial about 400,000
@Paul O’Mahoney: listen ye thick phucks, there are a lot of people in this country earning this wage and less for FULL TIME work. If ye took yer fg heads out of yer a holes, ye would realise this is the situation in the great so called country that Harris has ye believing in. The rich are on the pigs back and phuck everyone else! The fg way!
People that are not wealthy and struggling with the cost of living increases, electricity etc., but Brendan and his cronies will say we should upskill and become brain surgeons just so we can afford basic things!
@den: That’s some rant, nobody denies that there are people on 450 who work full-time. The question is how many so that better understanding can be made.
You appear frustrated and that’s fine but I’m not the person who created the figures.
@Paul O’Mahoney: apologies Paul, not directed at you, my mistake.
If you work full time (39 hours) at minimum wage you will earn €495 per week, this will increase to €526 next year. Part time earnings shouldn’t be used in this agenda driven article unless specifically highlighted as such.
@The next small thing: don’t forget your TAX out of that some won’t even work for that
Dont have to stay in any job, go to college, get better educated, and move on. Plenty well paid jobs out there.
@Peter Byrne: dont be talking sense.
@Peter Byrne: move out of the country if you want you’re own home though or stay with mammy and daddy forever.
That’s a good thing. It shows that we have a properly functioning economy which is largely devoid of government-mandated redistribution policies, despite us having a relatively high personal tax burden compared to the rest of Europe which could definitely be reduced. Reduced inequality does not equal a fairer country. Afghanistan has the smallest amount of income inequality in the world but that’s because everyone is equally poor. In the last 50 years, the wealthy may have gotten 200% richer, but the poorest people also got 35% richer. The most common lie spread around by idiots is that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The truth is that the rich get richer and the poor get richer as well.
@Frank O’Hara: oh yeah, the wealthy got 200% richer and the peasants got 35%!!
Yeah what are the peasants complaining about!!
Sac
@den: And the richer paid more tax than the ” peasants” , your word, too. If anything the lower paid taxes are shrinking.
And yet pensioners who worked and paid tax & prsi their whole working lives are expected to SURVIVE on 1/2 that.
@John Garrigan: 450/2 = 225 contributory pension is more than that.
As usual these surveys can be very misleading and perhaps give false information. It might help if showed how many Hours people had worked to earn the €450 was it 20, 30 or 39.
Our Political Class love to quote the average Industrial wage when in fact most people don’t earn anywhere near it. The reality is that all our Political Class are insulated from reality, with their salaries, expenses, pensions etc, they cannot empathize as they don’t struggle. It doesn’t pay to work & be honest in Ireland anymore. A colleague who forgoes everything in order to pay their mortgage is surrounded on both sides with houses bought by the Council, nobody working in either, always causing aggro & their home burgled twice. The Political Class have abandoned working Ireland, hence the apathy, the next step up from apathy, is when this Govt are in for a shock & it’s coming.
@SV3tN8M4: I think you’ll find , if you want to, that the majority does earn more than the average. This data is published by Revenue and freely available. Wouldn’t apathy lead to the opposite to what you think it is? The election is over and using excuses for people not voting is a waste of time. If Apathy was so prevalent, how did the “Monk” get so many votes, especially in an area where voter turnout has been historically low.
Placing people into classes is not a what a Republic stands for, and shouldn’t be done.
Imagine if they had of voted. This is a very large cohort of society and we get a 50 odd % turn out on GE day. Gives my arse a headache .
The figure is higher than that there are many barely getting minimum wage in average jobs and if they’re wages increased recently so did the tax bracket on them.
have your say