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IRELAND HAS THE third highest proportion of workers who are on low pay out of 36 mostly-European members, according to analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Approximately 23% of Ireland’s full-time workforce is on what is categorised as low pay, or earning less than two thirds of median earnings, according to 2017 figures.
That represents around 100,000 workers in Ireland. The average wage in Ireland is calculated as €42,889, based on 2018 figures (this is not the same as the median).
OECD Social / TwitterCompare the % of workers on low pay across OECD countries. Learn more key stats from the OECD #EmploymentOutlook. https://t.co/BEPxZHeKnH #TheFutureOfWork pic.twitter.com/Nrk6EpOGml
— OECD Social (@OECD_Social) August 12, 2019
Sinn Féin spokesperson on Jobs, Workers’ Rights and Pay Equality, Maurice Quinlivan said the research highlighted the “urgent need” for a living wage in Ireland.
The living wage is an amount needed to maintain a normal standard of living, when the cost of groceries, fuel, and other bills are taken into account. Currently the living wage in Ireland is estimated to be €12.30 an hour.
Quinlivan said that the OECD figures confirmed that “a huge number of workers across Ireland are poorly paid and struggling to afford basic day-to-day necessities”.
This is well above the OECD average of 15.6% and it portrays Ireland as an exception when it comes to good pay for workers.
These figures confirm the economic recovery has bypassed a huge portion of our society.
“Proper wages and the eradication of precarious working practices must be the essential foundations of economic growth and productivity moving forward.”
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Problem is we’re depending on people earning €94,535 and similar in expenses to make that decision for us. The wheels turn slowly.
@Daithi Ó Raghallaigh: one thing us irish do well is keep us irish down !
@Daithi Ó Raghallaigh: the problem is we are all paying too much tax which is squandered by people that are too corrupt to maximise it
@Smiley: In addition there is also the crippling millstone of debt around the neck of the public that we were never asked about and many if not most were strongly against
@Smiley: we are not paying enough tax. They pay more in Scandinavian countries and get far better services as a result
@john doe: that may be, but if we were paying more, service would not increase here.
@john doe: Far better services yes mostly. But they’re now paying that much more tax than us, a couple more points at most. Our health service is a perfect example, we pay top coin and receive bottom dollar.
@john doe:
You are right about Scandinavia, high taxes but fantastic healthcare, state run, subsidized childcare, heavily regulated, fantastic parental leave, brilliant transport.
I don’t think anybody in Ireland would object to paying higher taxes if we got the same here.
The difference is, their politicians are accountable, ours are not!
As a Dane I get a little irritated hearing about the Scandinavian fantasy repeatedly. Danish hospitals have people on trollies too. A pity you can’t read Danish as I could link to the articles, as things are shambles there too. It is not all rosy, just a much higher tax burden.
We Need to reduce the cost of living. If minimum wage is increased to a living wage then everything will just become more expensive
@Dave Byrne: Need to do both really. Drive down the cost of living essentials. Housing being the big one. While raising the wage to a dignified life. Being on a low wage means you are mostly renting and paying not only more of your percentage income on housing but more actual money on rent than a mortgage you can’t save a deposit for.
@Dave Byrne:
That’s not true. It will, however, decrease private profit by the same amount.
@Micheál: How is not true? Business owners will always keep the same margins of profit. If they start paying employees 3 euro per hour more then the cost of the goods or services they provide will also be increased to reflect the more expensive cost of labour
@Dave Byrne:
Business owners will definitely try to keep the same level of profits, you are correct in that. Whether they have the power to do so is another thing. Competition and pressure on sales, however, have proven to be more powerful
Love that . . The average wage is €43,000.
That’s when you take into count the massive wage bill from high ranking civil servants and politician’s on €150,000 + a year. I think an average person is bringing home an average wage of€27,000 – €32,000.
@Jason O Flynn: think you mean median not average and there’s plenty more in the private sector earning many multiples of the salaries you’ve quoted. They affect the stats to a far greater degree but rant on kid rant on
@Jason O Flynn: you think the high wage civil servants are the problem and not the private capital multi-millionaires?
@Jason O Flynn: Why the unions go along with this lie, i’ll never understand. Your right and the mode average is around €25000 a year gross. There are a lot of young people who read the €43000 figure and it must make them very depressed about the work they do. House prices are another problem for a young couple, 2 x €25000= €50000 x by 3=€150000 plus 10%=15000 = €165000 to buy a house according to bank criteria to buy a home is impossible for them with starting prices above €230000. Yet they are expected to rent for prices of €2000 plus a month. Bubble will burst again.
@Thomas Roche: that was a brilliant summation of our issues though seeing the figures actually depressed me more.
@Jason O Flynn: even less than that.
@GrahamMManning: True that!
But I was trying to make more of a point of high paid public sector workers being paid extorted wages from the money being taken from our apparent average/median wage. I do understand they’re are higher wages out there in the private sector. . But if company’s want to pay them, let them off.
@Thomas Roche: what I love is when the articles keep coming up again and again about the government going on about the average industrial wage and now the average/median wages in this country. Of course if you pick one particular well paid working group and get an average and say it’s around €40,000, it makes the government look like it’s performing above and beyond. And the recession was a thing of the past.
Why not get an average wage of the low paid. An average wage of hospitality staff/chefs/shop workers/creche workers/ and so on. Blowing smoke up their ass.
@monika: I know, they should take an average wage of the low paid . . See if that makes them look like they’re doing such a great job!
If this happens, inflation will go up as business owners increase their prices to pay for it. Then your living wage rises to €13 or €14 per hour, and we are back at square one.
@Mick paisley: I agree.
The increase in wages should be complimented with a decrease in taxation for the business; effectively passing the amount paid in tax, on to the employees.
@Mushy Peas: so in other words corporate welfare.
Thriving under FFG…
€42.,000 is the average but what’s the median wage ?. Alot of people feeling below average this morning. Median wage is around 29,000.
Immigration is what keeps pay down, the Central Bank said as much twoweeks ago, the more migrants that come into this country, the lower the average pay per person.
@Pat Baker:
must have missed that, do you have a link?
@Maurice: google it.
@Pat Baker:
What is asserted without evidence will be dismissed without evidence.
@Pat Baker: you arent allowed say things like thst regardless of how true they are
@Pat Baker:
Thanks
@Pat Baker: you shouldnt have bothered, even evidence and facts dont make people see sense
@Pat Baker: Thanks for the link.
@Thomas Maher: Not my words, Im just repeating what the CB has said. Im no economics buff.
@Pat Baker: article also states there are not enough migrants coming into the country to keep the pay down
@Pat Baker: bull the greedy eleites in the country knock all ffg mathes out of kilter
90% of the people I know are on minimum wage or if theyre lucky a euro more. These figures are baffling. Over 40k a yr average wages i dont think so
I get paid 11 euro an hour teaching preschool. That is considered really good in childcare. I’m sick of breaking my back daily for so little
@Kate Reddin: You won’t make money here I’m afraid, the US or Australia is the only option if people want to make money to be honest
@The decline of Manchester United: childcarers are underpaid in every country. They had a strike day last year in Australia. Its a terrible profession to be I if you want earn money unless you own a creche.
@The decline of Manchester United: And teachers had to strike in West Virginia to get a decent wage. It’s not the country That’s the issue it’s the general global undervaluing of decent work.
@The decline of Manchester United: early childcare workers in the States earn even less than here with the median hourly wage of $9.77 which is less than our minimum wage. “Half of America’s childcare workers need food stamps, welfare payments or Medicaid…
“Wages remain paltry even among the college-educated workforce. Early childhood education is the college major that yields the lowest lifetime pay.”
The days of high pay in the US are long gone except for a few select industries; 78% of workers live paycheck to paycheck.
It was said at the time and now its happened. Government used the entry of people coming in from other Countries to drive down wages here Its one of the main reasons that Brexit is happening across the water
And the Central Bank is telling the government to get more immigrants in to keep the cost of wages down.
Guess what the government will decide to do.
@Dave Doyle: Well we can’t all go to cheap countries as wealthy foreigners and moan about our home country. You are a true hypocrite who just did basically the same to suit yourself.
@Craic_a_tower: More personal attacks from the usual suspects.
@Dave Doyle: Being called out for what you are doing isn’t an attack. If I am saying something that is untrue point it out. You freely put this information out for public viewing.
@Craic_a_tower: It is a personal attack. Your comment has nothing to do with the issue or article. Why i’m here and what i’m doing here is none of your business.
@Dave Doyle: You are on a public forum revealing details of your life. If you don’t want comments made don’t tell people. Your view point is open to criticism and if what you said shows you are a hypocrite I will point it out. It is relevant to your comment as you are accusing the Irish government of doing what you are actually doing. Why I’m here and what I am doing is none of your business.
@Craic_a_tower: Excuses for the personal you and other FG’ers continuously subject me to.
You and your ilk do not like hearing the truth about the damage this FG government is causing to the fabric of Irish society.
@Dave Doyle: You seem to be under some delusion that that you are important enough for people to conspire against you as a group. I have nothing to do with anybody else here. I am strongly against petty political point scoring by invoking political party names. I certainly have nothing to do with FG. If you can provide proof of you claims go for it. You do seem to object to the truth about you being stated which again seems to be hypocritical. I simply comment on stuff I dislike or like and if your comments qualify I will continue to comment on them. You happen to say a lot I dislike
@Craic_a_tower: No delusion, it’s happening a lot here lately. All by FG’ers. You made not one comment on the article. Just went straight to make a personal attack on me.
@Dave Doyle: wrong I did comment elsewhere here. You are of no importance for anybody to conspire against you. It isn’t like you are revealing some hidden information. You mostly appear to spout your opinion as fact which it isn’t. If people don’t agree with you it is probably because you are not honest and that is why I commented to point out your hypocrisy. Still waiting for your facts to back up your initial claim.
@Craic_a_tower: My comment on the article is fact.
@Dave Doyle: ROFL
As long as SinnFein supporters don’t need to pay for it as per usual and stand to gain. Yawn.
@Lar Meyler: why wouldnt sinn fein supports have to pay?
Been on 23000 – 25000 the last 8 years. Thats my average wage.
About eight grand short if you’re on disability or a pensioner.
@Niall Sheridan: but you will get free travel and a medical card. I spend about 4 grand a year commuting to work, and that’s after tax and doesn’t include the cost of maintenance on the car.
@Niall Sheridan: I’d actually be better off by 85 Euro a week if I went back on disability and blind pension. Lost both when I decided to go out and work full time, lost more through a pay drop when I left the private sector. Public Sector pension levies and top up AVC’s decimate my pay packet and tax relief barely takes the edge off and I also don’t qualify for a free travel pass or medical card.
We are paying corporate welfare. By that I mean corporations are allowed to pay people leess than what they need to live. They then qualify for government benefits. The government makes up the difference through HAP and other schemes. Corporations make record profits, the government pays the difference from the workers wages and what they need to actually live. We all end up paying more because the corporations are allowed to pay less than a living wage.
“Median” is not the same as “average”, the two terms should not be used interchangeably.
If they capped rents so they couldn’t be the ridiculous prices they are at present then I think that would work best all round,as people have already said all this will do is cause business to raise their prices so would be pointless. I was living in a apartment which cost 450e month back in 2013 it’s now 1300e month so the savings would be much more significant and make cost of living alot less plus if wages go up it’s only taken with the other hand (tax).
@Siobhan Rosemary: lets say you were selling a car worth rougly 2 grand, would you be happy if fg came along and told you, no sorry there is a cap on how much you can sell the car for of €500, no you wouldnt, so landlords should rent there houses/apartments out for whatever they can get, rent caps are not the way to go, leave the landlords alone, government building social housing is the only thing going to fix the problem but unfortunately the current government is either stupid, which i doubt, or ideologically opposed to fixing the problem
@Thomas Maher: so you think it’s ok for a landlord to rent out a property previously 450e to 1300e?? Let me add this property has no working heating and is damp. Do you think its acceptable for a landlord to rent out rooms with multiple tenants for high rent? Landlords should just be allowed to charge what they want? In that case the local shops should start charging €100 per pint of milk. As for your comment regarding buying a car that does not compare, you buy a car on its condition and not buying a car wont cause you to become homeless etc so is the apartment with no heat and damp that caused me to constantly to have chest infections worth 1300e per month?
@Thomas Maher: you say worth? Ok housing should be charged at it’s worth like a car so a house/apartments condition and size! That wouldn’t definitely bring down the price.
@Siobhan Rosemary: You should have reported this landlord for renting a property that fell below minimum regulations. It’s a free market however and people can charge what they like. If the shop owner charged €100 for a litre of milk then nobody would buy it there. The market determines the price of everything, landlords, shop owners, car sellers or anybody just fall in line. If there more properties to rent and buy the price will fall. Putting price caps on people’s private property is ridiculous
How can you live in an hourly rate? Most of those on contacts have variable hours. Surely it should be minimum weekly/monthly wage and tied to social welfare rates?
We all move to Spain,where Irish but we feel like nothing is given back to us Irish,it’s always take in the budget and high costs,let’s all move to Spain an easier life
@Anthony Sweeney: lived in Barcelona for 5 years and I can say first hand it is not an easier life.
@Free Online Games:
It is if you are living on a pension, Barcelona would be a poor choice though IMO.
@David Grey: Anthony stated ”We all move to Spain”, I based my answer on this assumption. Obviously if you had a pension it would be different, I would focus on learning the local language/dialect before moving anywhere in Spain.
Big problem on the way when robots come to take retail, driving jobs and call centre jobs in the next 15 years or so. Living wage per hour on no employment won’t be much use.
The cost of living is too high, not the living wage being too low. Rent rates should be capped, and should have been capped years ago. Rent Pressure Zones haven’t helped either. Even with a max increase of 4% a year(which doesn’t seem like a lot), but since it was introduced in January 2017, that 4% becomes an increase of 12% over the last 3 years, and 40% increase over 10 years. Wages aren’t increasing by that amount, and Social Welfare payments are certainly not increasing by that much.
@neuromancer:
Your figures are wrong – it is closer to 12.5% after 3 years and 48% over 10 years
@Maurice: It’s 4% per year. Do you need a calculator?
@neuromancer:
You forgot the % increase also works on the previous larger figure.
Okay- so with rent of 1000 and 4% increase over 10 years
That is 1000 * (1.04)^10 = 1480.24
the difference of 480.24 over the original 1000, then multiply by 100 = 48.024%
@neuromancer:
If rent is 1000 and increases by 4% then it becomes 1040 after year 1.
When it comes to the 2nd year increase the 4% you are applying is on the original 1000, this is incorrect and should be on the larger 1040 figure. This is why it becomes 48% over 10 years and not 40%
@neuromancer: Cap rents more and you will get less supply. Don’t let reality bother you though. It isn’t like there were warnings about increasing costs and expense on landlords would push up rents later. For every €1 increase in costs it takes €2 in rent increase for it to be recouped. For every year that recoup couldn’t happen meant rent would have to go up more later on. The public and the government didn’t care. You reap what you sow
@Maurice: I didn’t want to confuse people by getting into the figures, thanks for following up.
It’s a combination of low wages and the rip of Ireland that we live in. The cost of living in this country is just to high.
Anyone on minimum wage better off on the dole it’s an insult to people
Sinn Fein are so populist it’s unbelievable. As long as there support benefits it is all that matters. What about the working classes who have to pay for all this through our taxes. We are screwed every month. Next they will be looking for free gym membership subsidized fags and drink for the unemployed
@finbarr walsh: How incredibly classist of you. You think you do/may have to “supplement” the wages of people who work in bars, shops, cafés, restaurants etc? Are you for real? Nobody “supplements” my wage. I earn every bit of it through sweat,tears and hard work, and I pay every bit of extortionate tax on it too. Get a grip.
@WorkerMonkeysUnite: no point talking to people like that, they will always have the ssme mindset, its been indoctrinated into them and no amount of evidence or reasoning will mske them see their stupidity
@finbarr walsh: Well Finbarr I am going to give you another bit of news the OAP are in for 5 euros a week in the budget Now that will give you something to moan about . Its not SF thats doing the giving but the real Tory party of Ireland the party I would suspect you vote for.
@finbarr walsh: as so wine unemployed, your comments are extremely insulting.
I worked for 10 years before I had to leave for mental health reasons. I’m now struggling to get any benefits at all, because apparently quitting for the sake of my mental health isn’t a good enough reason. Being suicidal isn’t a good enough reason.
I’m an Irish citizen, and have been told that I will not be entitled to more than €100 per week if they deem me eligible for benefits. My rent is €115, so it won’t even cover that. I’m down to my last €5, now… Can’t afford food, so I’ve had to start going to cork penny dinners for a meal daily.
I rarely drink, so none of any benefit I got would go towards that, except maybe one or two drinks every few months. Last time I had a drink it was at a relative’s house, so had been bought by them, and they are in jobs, so no benefits in sight.
I also don’t smoke anything. Tried about 10 or so years ago, and gave up after 2 fags.
I’m doing everything I can to find a new job, but in the past couple of months, I’ve had one interview, and didn’t get the job. People seem to think that an unemployed person can just walk into a job with no issue.. but that’s certainly not my experience.
As someone in need of support, genuine support.. just shut yer trap about things you don’t understand.
It is a massive struggle for people even to rent property the way prices have jumped that is before they even put a scrap of food on the table the Electrics ,clothing . The only thing that has not gone up is the wages for the ordinary worker .Fine Gael Fianna Fáil gave there own a big wage increase and failed to tax the banks and the rich . But come the next Election there will be the same crowd moaning and voting for them we badly need to wake up .
Whos paying for this rise??
Ridiculous country, they rob you in every budget and we sit and watch?
Workers generally and low paid workers specifically have been required to pay a hig percentage of their wage to compensate for Celtic Tiger builders/developers and their enabling bankers.many bankers.builders and developers are now back earning high incomes whild those on a subsistence wage are still struggling because of USC, higher VAT and property tax; measures imposed by the EU, the ECB & the IMF and up to now the FG government has not addressed now that it can.
IMO, Sinn Fein should be advocating E15/hr ( not E12.50)as minimum wage & lift corporate tax to at least 15%, shut down NAMA & liquidate its assets.
With Brexit pending, asset values are as good as it gets for at least 5 years, IMO.
@Moorooka Mick: low paid workers pay little to no income tax so they are absolutely not paying for the banks mistakes. Separately feck all people are ACTUALLY on 23k, if you want a fella to wash your windows these days he’ll have the hand out & €100 before you can blink. People may be on 23k, but they’re supplementing it for sure. I’m not objecting as it’s how bills get paid & kids get reared but let’s not go adjusting tax bands for the rest of us on some fictitious stats.
Employers always say they can’t afford it which isn’t the case, when all employers have to pay the same living wage it means everyone has the same expenses, we need to create a job market where those at the top don’t get paid ridiculous salaries and those at the bottom get paid a decent wage, it works magnificently in Scandinavia where the average wealth is far higher than Ireland.
Unfortunately we live in a greed economy and are slowly becoming the USA..
@David Grey: I can assure you it is the case. Why not try it and find out for yourself.
Lower the vat rate
Earning less that 2/3 of the median income – then gives us the average earnings with no mention of the median income. For a full year the Sinn Féin proposal would come to about 25 and a half grand.
The cost of rent needs to go down, some people are paying upwards of 1600 per month on a house when the owner is only paying about half this for the mortgage its not right renting should be near the same if not cheaper than buying
@Karl Charlie: The owner is paying tax on the rent, i.e. probably >40%. The ones you really need to blame are corporations that own whole estates and inflate the rents but pay very little tax (if any).
My partner working 16 years in her job and still on less than 11 euro an hour no rights no union made sign a contract every year
The increase of the wages are not the problem in itself… It is the cost of life… Rents, taxes, groceries, cars…insurances, everything is constantly increasing more than the salaries. They must be reviewed and eventually caped.
If living wage is introduced thousands of people will lose their jobs and the price of everything would skyrocket even further
@Jeffrey Quirke:
Jeffrey, this is not correct. All a general wage increase does is cause the general rate of profit to fall. Different classes of people share the same pot, except one class gains more at the expense of the other
Bareback
You couldn’t beat Paddy to ride his own.
The greedy bas,,,d.
Live and Let Live I Say.
Thanks for that. 23% are earning less than 2/3 of the median and then you tell us what the average is and that the average isn’t the median. Might be worth telling us what the median is?
I think we need a decent cost of living more: rent, housing, crippling taxes squeezed out of us for every damn thing imaginable, shady insurance cartels… The cost of almost EVERYTHING in this country is unacceptably and unrealistically high…
And still tax prsi ucs etc. The list goes on property tax inheritance tax etc. Thieving Fianna gael
Is the 43000+ after or before tax, usc ?
have your say