The Earnings and Labour Costs (ELC) quarterly publication publishes statistics on average weekly and hourly earnings and labour costs where these average earnings figures are mean earnings. For example, average weekly earnings are calculated by summing the earnings of all employees in a sector and dividing by the average of all the employees in that sector and dividing by 13, the number of weeks in a quarter. Average hourly earnings are calculated by summing the earnings of all employees in a sector and dividing by the sum of all hours worked by employees in the sector.
The Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) annual publication publishes statistics on both mean and median weekly and annual earnings for employments active in the month of October of the reference year. Weekly earnings are calculated by dividing the gross annual earnings of an employment by the number of weeks worked. Furthermore, the mean weekly earnings within a particular economic sector are calculated by summing the weekly earnings of each employment in the sector and dividing by the sum of the employments. The same approach is used to calculate the mean annual earnings using the gross annual earnings for employments that were active for at least 50 weeks of the year, as outlined in the Background Notes of the publication.
As is typical in earnings distributions, a relatively small number of high earners result in a positively skewed earnings distribution of employees in Ireland. In a positively skewed earnings distribution, mean earnings are greater than median earnings as the mean is increased by those higher earners. 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. Please see the graph below which illustrates the earnings distribution of employees in Ireland in 2023. This data is taken from the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources 2023 publication.
The Earnings and Labour Costs publciation is based upon firm level earnings data which is used to produce mean earnings statistics and thus cannot produce median earnings statistics.
| X-axis label | % of employments |
|---|---|
| 50 | 0.13 |
| 150 | 3.41 |
| 300 | 10.95 |
| 450 | 11.19 |
| 600 | 14.83 |
| 750 | 13.69 |
| 900 | 10.83 |
| 1050 | 7.9 |
| 1200 | 5.87 |
| 1350 | 4.61 |
| 1500 | 3.66 |
| 1650 | 2.72 |
| 1800 | 2.01 |
| 1950 | 1.61 |
| 2100 | 1.18 |
| 2250 | 0.85 |
| 2400 | 0.7 |
| 2550 | 0.54 |
The Average Industrial Wage refers to average weekly earnings of Industrial Workers in the Industry Sector. Industrial Workers are defined as production, transport, craft and other manual workers. The Industry sector is shown in the Earnings and Labour Costs (ELC) publication as "NACE sectors B to E". This NACE classification includes the following activities: mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity, gas and water supply. The Average Industrial Wage is calculated as follows: regular earnings for the quarter divided by the average number of persons employed during the quarter, divided by 13 (the number of weeks in a quarter). Average Industrial Wage data is shown in Table A1 of the Earnings and Labour Costs publication and in the PxStat table EHQ13. Historical Average Industrial Wage data from 1938 is also available.
The Earnings and Labour Costs (ELC) quarterly publication does not break down earnings data by sex or geographical location. However, the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) publication publishes both median and mean earnings by region, sector, sex, age group and nationality.
Earnings data broken down by specific occupations is not included in the Earnings and Labour Costs (ELC) quarterly publication or the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) annual publication. The most detailed earnings data which is published is classified by three broad occupation groups and is available in Table A1 of the Earnings and Labour Costs publication and in the PxStat table EHQ13.
The average weekly earnings are calculated from gross pre-tax wages and salaries figures. The average is calculated from all employees earnings within the particular sector ranging from that of lower paid new recruits to higher paid senior executives. Your take home wage is a net pay amount after the deduction of PAYE tax, PRSI contributions, universal social charge (USC) and pension contributions.
Both the Earnings and Labour Costs (ELC) quarterly publication and the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) annual publication produce average earnings data for the public and private sectors. The average public sector earnings are higher than private sector earnings for a variety of reasons including: public sector employees are on average older than private sector employees, are more likely to have completed third level education and are more likely to be a member of a trade union. Comparisons of public sector and private sector earnings require detailed analysis. While there is no internationally agreed methodology for assessing the public-private sector wage gap, the CSO has published analysis of the differential using the National Employment Survey for 2007-2010 and a matched Quarterly National Household Survey and P35 dataset for 2011-2014 and 2015-2018. Earnings data was taken from the PAYE Modernisation (PMOD) dataset used to compile the CSO’s publication Earnings Analysis from Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) which provides analysis of earnings data for PAYE individuals for the period 2019 to 2022.
These analysis took account of compositional differences between the public and private sector, such as occupational mix, sectors of activity, gender balance, union membership, etc. The public sector pay gap in 2022 was estimated to range from -6.6% to +0.9% depending on the specification applied and the treatment of the additional superannuation contribution. For the most recent analysis, see Econometric Analysis of the Public-Private Sector Pay Differential 2022. Previous analysis of the Public-Private Sector Pay Differential is available here and National Employment Survey 2009 and 2010 Supplementary Analysis (PDF 678KB)
The Education Sector average weekly earnings are calculated from all employees within the sector (not just teachers). The inclusion of a university professor at the top of their salary scale would, for example, inflate the average value. On the other hand, the inclusion of a part-time school caretaker's wages may bring the average down. Therefore, the earnings figures presented for the Education Sector do not reflect an individual salary, but instead give an indication of the average earnings of all employees in the sector.
The Earnings and Labour Costs publication does not publish data on agricultural workers. Employment data for agricultural workers is available in the Labour Force Survey (LFS) release.
In 2017 the CSO produced the Historical Earnings 1938-2015 publication based on data collected from various CSO historical publications and the following related PxStat tables: Industrial Earnings 1938-1999 and 2000-2007, Earnings in the Construction Sector 1969-2008, Earnings in the Distribution and Business Services Sector 1998-2008, Earnings in the Financial Business Sector 1988-2007.
Current Quarterly and Annual PxStat tables for Earnings Hours and Employment Costs Survey by Economic Sector and the Eurostat Earnings and Labour Cost statistics are also available.