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OUR TAXATION SYSTEM and welfare systems are unfairly weighted against low and middle income, working couples with children.
These same young working couples are the life-blood of our society and community, but they are often under severe financial pressure as they work hard in full-time jobs, while raising a family.
The child tax credit was removed from such couples in the 1980s recession and never restored.
Those couples in full-time work have no access to free healthcare, for themselves or their children and face whopping childcare costs. For some of them after they pay out for childcare, they are left with less in their pocket that those on social welfare.
Forming a recognised couple is a financial impediment as well, compared to those who claim to be living separately.
As a person over 70, I get free travel, a free TV licence and free doctors visits – but it is young, working parents that need a break more than me.
To top it off, if either person in this young couple is a public servant, they are also likely to be on lower pay than most of their colleagues due to the arrangement to cut pay for new recruits.
So when you add it all up it does seem that working couples, on low to medium incomes, with children are treated pretty unfairly.
Did you ever wonder why?
I’m convinced that at least part of the reason is that the policy-makers (that is the politicians and the senior civil servants who advise them) are all in a completely different income bracket and have no idea what life is like for the average worker.
This is compounded by the fact that those policymakers also think that most workers are better off than they actually are, due to relying on misleading statistics on the average salary in Ireland.
The median versus the mean
Policymakers rely on the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for their information on the average income of workers and the CSO publishes quarterly and annual releases on earnings and income for full and part-time workers.
These releases always focus on ‘mean average’ incomes and the most recent CSO Release Annual Earnings for 2017 says that the average earnings in 2017 were €37,646.
You may recall from your school-learned maths, that the mean average is arrived at when you add up all the numbers and then divide the total by the number of numbers.
While the median average is the value that is slap bang in the middle of the list of numbers.
Both averages have their uses, but in the case of salaries, it is generally acknowledged that the mean average doesn’t tell us what a typical worker earns, while the median average is a really good indicator.
Take the following example. Five people work together in an office-based company in Cork city centre. Four of them earn €30k per year, but the manager earns €80k.
To get the mean average you divide the total, which is €200k by 5 and that gives €40k.
But would you say that €40k the typical salary of a worker in that workplace? The majority of workers in the business earn €30k and only one person earns more.
The exact same anomaly is reproduced at national level. Very high earners drive up the mean average while the majority of full-time Irish workers earn less than the €37,646.
Typical salary
The median gives a better insight into what is a typical salary for an Irish worker is.
The most recent information produced by the CSO which provides information on the median income is the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS). Unfortunately, the most recent figures published are for 2014 so we will have to work with those.
The EAADS data shows that mean average earnings of all workers in 2014 was €668.88 per week which amounts to a salary of €34,782 over the 52 weeks of the year.
However, when you look at the median average income, the situation is quite different. The median income was €528.81 a week or €27,456 per annum in 2014.
So in 2014, the mean average was 26% above the median average.
The EAADS document also provides a graph showing the Distribution of Workers by Earnings Level for 2014. By analysing that graph we can calculate that about 64% of all workers earned less than the mean average income in 2014.
On the same page as that graph, you can see that the CSO acknowledges that for salary distribution, the median is more useful than the mean – since high earners “positively skewed earnings distribution of employees in Ireland.”
“In such cases, median earnings (the middle earner in the economy or sector) may be a more reflective figure of the average earnings of employees in the economy or sector.”
Since it is so widely acknowledged that the median is a better indicator of typical salaries than the mean- then why do commentators and policymakers continue to focus on the mean average?
The most recent data released by the CSO indicates that the mean average income for all workers for 2017 was €37,646.
Assuming that the distribution is similar to 2014 when 64% of workers earned less than the mean average we can estimate that the typical worker in Ireland probably earned around €29,740 in 2017.
Considering that the CSO acknowledge that relying on the mean average for salaries skews the figures, perhaps they should at least publish both the median and the mean average incomes each year.
Then at least the public, the media and policymakers could decide for themselves which average tells them what they need to know.
Felim O’Rourke is an economist from Sligo with a particular interest in the impact of tax and welfare policy on ordinary workers.
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It was indeed a stupid thing to say but has apologised and he clearly doesn’t condone rape so lets move on and not make a scapegoat out of him.
@Coner Willis: fairly said.
@Coner Willis: agreed. It was a stupid joke he said 4 years ago and had openly apologised. Let it go.
The world has gone fu(kin mad at this stage with the political correctness.
@Alan Pike: objection to rape “jokes” is not about political correctness. It is about opposing the making of a supposed joke of real sexual violence against women.
@Fiona deFreyne: Tony , Tony , what can we do with you ?
You are conspicuously absent when Islam is at fault .
Now you’re picking on some words of an actor from 5 years ago . I’ll give you a heads up , Muhammed encouraged the rape of women , this guy is a numpty actor , if he has committed a crime then he’s in trouble .
@Paddy Hayden: you get that name confusion again.
All or any religions, often patriarchical, which tolerate condone , promote or imply approval of rape are wrong and evil. That includes any sect of Islam if they promote rape.
Rape, of course, is not confined to the practitioners of one religion or any religion.
@Fiona deFreyne: Strange how you fail to acknowledge that in Islam if a woman is not covered she’s game for the lads .
I’ll gladly have it out with you . You and your ilk , defending Islam .
Or have you got a different version ?
@Paddy Hayden: you’ve a very bad case of islamaphobia paddy, I hope you find a cure some day and let go of all the hate, it’s not healthy!
@goon4life: The goon title says it all , if i have a hatred of islam I’ll gladly sit here and argue the toss .
You see , goonlife , I’ve been around the world , there’s a problem developing , and it’s not Irishness.
@Paddy Hayden: @Paddy Hayden: I’ve been around the world myself, in fact I live in a multicultural Canadian city at the min, and there is now issues here, intolerance like yours isn’t accepted. You’re not wrong tho, there is problems in the world but it’s not “developing” it been here a long time, and it’s not simply caused by muslims as you seem to think, it’s caused by neo liberal capitalist agendas being forced upon people all over the globe, also the world super powers (US, Russia, UK, China, Israel, Iran etc etc) and their intelligence communities pursuing their own geopolitical interests in regions around the world. You’re probably most familiar with the proxy war in Syria. My advice to you is put down the Daily Mail or whatever garbage you do read and educate yourself a bit!
@goon4life: It’s not what I read , it’s what an islamist reads , and it’s called the Quran . In that book you’ll find all the garbage you need to live a bad life , and at the end if you want to check out , just go on jihad , there’ll be a spot in heaven for you .
I feel sorry for you living in Canada , Trudeau is working his magic .
He has lived in an Ivory tower , was a part time everything , and believes he knows best . The man’s a shyster , I’m not sure if Canada will survive his reign , especially when he has allowed the likes of Iqra Khalid to worm their way into Canadian society .
@Fiona deFreyne: but it wasn’t making a joke about real sexual violence against women though, was he? He was talking about the on-screen portrayal of sexual violence, which, by definition, is not “real sexual violence against women”..
@Paddy Hayden: ah ok so you are a scholar of the Quran? Where did you go to study it? And you’re an expert in international politics? Are you a professor at trinity, or do you just google shit and only read the shit that suits your opinions?!
@Fiona deFreyne: “opposing the making of a supposed joke of real sexual violence against wonen”
What about men or young boys??? But then they are the enemy aren’t they!
Interesting how everyone on here seems to support his apology and say move on, but for George Hook there was a different standard applied…
@Tom Tom: it is interesting. George was making a hypothetical devils advocate comment to himself but was also I believe held to account for previous comments he had made in the past. With this guy it’s a joke albeit an insensitive one, it’s a once off, it was a long time ago allowing room for maturing since then and he has gone to make a film about women’s rights thus absolving himself to some extent.
@Sean: Hook was a take down plain and simple. There were people waiting in the long grass to pounce at the first opportunity, he gave it to them by the ambiguity of his question, which could be read as victim blaming if that’s the way they actively wanted to view it. This actor guy was being an inconsiderate moron, he should’ve felt the heat from that at the time, but ffs. Trawling through everyone’s past comments, bad jokes and associations with the condemned has become the new sport, Offence Fever. Like looking for a red under the bed, people really do hunt in packs.
I like how The Journal includes tweets from nobodies in their articles.
It was a light hearted comment made about how crazy actors roles can be and it was FIVE years ago! Seriously what is going on these days. What kind of losers are trawling through archive footage in a desperate search to find content they can be offended by?
@The Guru: it’s actually getting a bit scary. It wasn’t his finest hour but should it really only be assessed now ….and internationally? He didn’t perve over anyone unlike Harvey wankstain.
All the actors alongside him who laughed should also issue public apologies
Some Irish Gardai do a strong line in rape jokes but when it is against female protesters it is acceptable.
Rape jokes are still prevalent in Ireland but increasingly objected to by men as well as by women.
@Fiona deFreyne: Rape jokes are prevalent are you trolling? I don’t know any man that would consider a joke about rape funny.
@Declan Byrne: you never ever heard a male telling a rape joke? Interesting.
@Declan Byrne: remember the Guards who arrested the female protestors at the Shell to Sea protests and joked about raping them in a squad car?
@Fiona deFreyne: well maybe if the “protesters ” had not been shouting “stop raping me” when they were being arrested therefore demeaning and trivializing actual rape then we could take your comment seriously. Oh and i don’t believe im wrong in saying that the poor “protesters” edited the tape to suit their own agenda and refused to hand over the original to be examined.. The Gardai were not making light of rape in that incident they were talking about the carry on of the “protesters” who were shouting rape as they were being arrested.
@Fiona deFreyne: fu*k me are you an expert on everything Tony? Always commenting but never reviewing how your guests are getting on. Are they integrating? What was the last camogie match they supported?
@Kinsaleable: feeble excuses for nasty types. Nothing excuses rape “jokes”. Only men beneath contempt make such jokes. Fortunately most men don’t and won’t tolerate such “jokes”.
@KingBen: ever manage to make a relevant comment?
@Fiona deFreyne: Im not making any excuse for anything or anyone Fiona because there was no “joke”. The “protesters” were the ones who were the nasty types in that situation though. They were the ones who shouted rape whist being arrested when they were clearly not being raped. They demeaned and trivialised the act of rape for victims because they had an agenda to try and make the Gardai look bad by editing the tape.. you would do well to add an element of fairness to your tripe if you really have to post rubbish. You have no problem casting aspersions on those Gardai on a whim while ignoring the background and findings of the subsequent inquiry.. There was no joke.
@Fiona deFreyne: continuing from my previous comment . The FEMALE “protesters” did a disservice to victims everywhere with their behaviour. You would want to remember that those Gardai are human too and just because they wear a uniform doesn’t make them fair game when you decide to come out with some drivel like you just posted…
@Fiona deFreyne: what freeking world are you living in. Get real
@Fiona deFreyne: always but after you tell us how your guests are getting on Tony.
@Fiona deFreyne: wanna play the rape game? No? That’s the spirit!
@George Beckett: rape is too serious to joke about. In fact, I once saved a girl from being raped. I stopped chasing her…..
@Fiona deFreyne: tits
Everyone offended again
Obviously meant as an unfortunate joke. In the wake of the Weinstein horror story everything anybody ever said is being scrutinised. Famous but fallible
The bubble has well and truly burst for the majority of us the only people here that looks foolish are the ones pretending to be outraged
He should call it locker-room talk and run for President.
@Diarmuid: The difference is that he has actually been in a locker room in the last few years.As for the Donald being in one ? I’d say that he hasn’t been in one in 40 odd years..No,wait.I’m wrong on that one.. Sure,didn’t he enter a teenage girls locker room while they were changing?
I will always remember him as Ronan from stargate.. or maybe now the guy who got slated for a joke he made years ago.
Just the “recreationally outraged” showing their heads again. Nothing to see here. Move along.
A guy walked into a bar, asked the barmaid for a double entendre so she gave him one
Ah get over it
Its OK to be offended by a joke but it is a joke
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz
6 YEARS ago….. 6 facking years AGO….. what kind of loner digs up this kind of stuff, anyway what’s game of thrones gonna do… Kill him off he’s been dead years yis TICKS
What an idiotic comment to make , but I doubt he’s a rapist , and I would imagine he said it in the sense of his movie roles .
I don’t watch game of thrones , I don’t think it’s reality .
He’s an actor , google him , From what I know about him , he loves his family .
He’d probably beat you to death if you messed with his kids .
That is rough…
Can i be outraged please
@John Smith: You have to sign a consent form for that . Just in case your outrage is viewed as (I give up) anything different in a few years time .
When all of you are denying rape culture exists this is how the structure is built. These comments are what normalises it.
He makes a lousy aquaman and now with his rape comments doubly so.
Typical juice head
Seriously, this was years ago. Why does anyone hive a shit?
The audience should be ashamed of themselves.
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