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Business In Ireland 2014

Business Costs in Ireland

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This section outlines some of the key statistics from the structural business surveys around the business costs faced by enterprises in Ireland. Personnel costs have been analysed already in other chapters ¹, however, this chapter takes a closer look at the elements that make up personnel costs, which are, wages & salaries and employers’ social security costs. The chapter also examines total purchases in the business economy and how purchases are broken down by sector and size class.

(1) Chapter 3 Small & Medium Enterprises and Chapter 5 Business Costs in Ireland.

Personnel costs

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Personnel costs are defined as the total remuneration, in cash or in kind, payable by an employer to an employee. Personnel costs include taxes and employees' social security contributions retained by the unit as well as the employer's compulsory and voluntary social contributions¹.

Personnel costs are made up of:

wages and salaries
employers' social security costs

Social security costs for the employer include employer's contributions to the PRSI scheme, superannuation funds, PRSA’s and other pension schemes. Also included are insurance premiums, employer’s liability insurance and private health premiums paid on behalf of employees.

(1) See Appendix 2 for full definition

	Social security costs	Wages and salaries
SMEs (<250)	11.7	88.3
Large (250+)	14.6	85.4
Total Business Economy	12.7	87.3

Wages & Salaries accounted for 87.3% of personnel costs for the total business economy in 2014.

Large enterprises paid 14.6% of personnel costs in social security compared to 11.7% paid by SMEs.

Social security contributions for the total business economy made up 12.7% of personnel costs.

	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)	All enterprises
Industry	8.7	15.4	12.5
Construction	10.1	10.3	10.1
Distribution	12.4	12.3	12.3
Services	12.6	14.9	13.3
Total Business Economy	11.7	14.6	12.7

For SMEs, social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs ranged from as low as 8.7% in the Industry sector to a high of 12.6% in Services sector in 2014.

In general, Large enterprises experience higher social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs than SMEs, ranging from 10.3% for Construction to a high of 15.4% for Industry.

	Social security costs as % of personnel costs
Sweden	30.4158878953881
France	30.049440166137
Italy	28.1783495967612
Belgium	26.678858247787
Czech Republic	26.1446165807039
Estonia	25.2593804618646
Slovakia	25.133598419613
Austria	23.0710773653684
Portugal	22.975278241897
Lithuania	22.7605983980562
Spain	21.8183788951337
Greece	21.7436023284601
Romania	21.7178860743217
Hungary	20.2558102001291
Finland	19.8307186802597
Latvia	19.4494351857588
Netherlands	19.2366872899692
Germany	17.5440366859675
Poland	16.6104893643482
Bulgaria	15.3480497493
Croatia	14.0596933684115
Ireland	13.411744284696
Slovenia	13.3046928495718
United Kingdom	13.058100719144
Luxembourg	12.8465796110905
Cyprus	12.6248233358819
Denmark	8.58176107464244
Malta	6.47413696793654

Ireland at 13.4% had the 7th lowest social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs in the EU28 for 2013.

Sweden reported the highest rate at 30.4% of personnel costs being spent on social security.

The United Kingdom had a similar rate of social security costs to Ireland at 13.1% of total personnel costs.

The Services sector accounted for 49.3% of total wages & salaries paid in Ireland's business economy in 2014.

Ireland's Industry and Distribution sectors each accounted for approximately one fifth of total wages & salaries paid.

The Construction sector's share of total wages & salaries paid in Ireland in 2014 was 7.2%.

Data revised for Figure 5.4 on 20th October 2017.

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Wages and salaries
Industry	21.5
Construction	7.2
Distribution	22
Services	49.3

	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)	All enterprises
Industry	40951.2097143388	54419.3973055547	47301.5288532457
Construction	31835	54254	34982
Distribution	30880	29419	30209
Services	33212	41615	37425
Total Business Economy	35280.3149644577	43316.0648862066	39085.3722588147

Industrial employees enjoyed the highest sectoral wages in Ireland in 2014 at €47,302 per employee.

In contrast, employees in the Distribution sector had the lowest wages at €30,209 per employee.

In the total business economy in 2014, employees in SMEs had average wages of €35,280 while employees in Large enterprises had average wages of €43,316.

The Services sector had the largest share of total purchases in the Business Economy in Ireland in 2014 at 39.2%.

The Distribution and Industry sectors accounted for 33.7% and 25.6% of total Business Economy purchases.

The smallest sector was the Construction sector with only 1.6% of total purchases by the Irish Business Economy.

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Total purchases
Industry	25.5776545721573
Construction	1.55121827680884
Distribution	33.6817294815294
Services	39.1893976695045

5.1 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total business economy by sector and size class, 2014

5.2 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total business economy, EU28 countries, 2013

5.3 Purchases in the total business economy by sector and size class, 2014

Go to next chapter >>>Detailed Business Sectors

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Table 5.1 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total business economy¹ by sector and size class, 2014
	Personnel costs	Wages & salaries	Social security costs	Social security costs as a % of personnel costs	Wages & salaries per employee²
	€m	€m	€m	%	€uro

Industry	10,991	9,620	1,371	12.5	47,302
SMEs (<250)	4,820	4,401	419	8.7	40,951
Large (250+)	6,171	5,219	952	15.4	54,419
Construction	3,563	3,204	360	10.1	34,982
SMEs (<250)	3,282	2,951	331	10.1	31,835
Large (250+)	282	253	29	10.3	54,254
Distribution	11,242	9,857	1,385	12.3	30,209
SMEs (<250)	8,316	7,295	1,021	12.3	30,880
Large (250+)	2,926	2,562	364	12.4	29,419
Services	25,455	22,078	3,377	13.3	37,425
SMEs (<250)	18,053	15,779	2,274	12.6	33,212
Large (250+)	7,402	6,299	1,103	14.9	41,615

Total Business Economy	51,251	44,759	6,493	12.7	39,085
SMEs (<250)	34,471	30,426	4,045	11.7	35,280
Large (250+)	16,781	14,333	2,448	14.6	43,316
Source: CSO structural business surveys
¹The total business economy includes NACE Rev. 2 Sections B to N (excluding K) and R92, R93, S95 and S96.
²Average wages per employee for Construction, Distribution and Services were calculated using survey returns.

Table 5.2 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total business economy¹, EU28 countries, 2013
	Personnel costs	Wages & salaries	Social security costs	Social security costs as a % of personnel costs
	€m	€m	€m	%
European Union (28 countries)	3,760,181	2,953,645	806,577	21.5
Belgium	109,639	80,388	29,250	26.7
Bulgaria	9,214	7,800	1,414	15.3
Czech Republic	42,189	31,159	11,030	26.1
Denmark	73,610	67,293	6,317	8.6
Germany	902,776	744,392	158,383	17.5
Estonia	5,378	4,020	1,359	25.3
Ireland	46,242	40,040	6,202	13.4
Greece	27,709	21,684	6,025	21.7
Spain	261,089	204,153	56,965	21.8
France	665,957	465,840	200,116	30.0
Croatia	11,023	9,473	1,550	14.1
Italy	359,539	258,226	101,312	28.2
Cyprus	4,316	3,771	545	12.6
Latvia	4,842	3,901	942	19.4
Lithuania	7,079	5,468	1,611	22.8
Luxembourg	11,617	10,125	1,492	12.8
Hungary	24,784	19,764	5,020	20.3
Malta	1,790	1,674	116	6.5
Netherlands	176,968	142,925	34,043	19.2
Austria	105,534	81,186	24,348	23.1
Poland	77,997	65,041	12,956	16.6
Portugal	39,920	30,749	9,172	23.0
Romania	24,109	18,873	5,236	21.7
Slovenia	10,661	9,243	1,418	13.3
Slovakia	15,794	11,824	3,970	25.1
Finland	57,490	46,089	11,401	19.8
Sweden	145,635	101,339	44,296	30.4
United Kingdom	543,744	472,741	71,003	13.1
Source: Eurostat/CSO structural business surveys
¹ The total business economy covers NACE Rev. 2 Sections B to N (excluding K). Note that R92, R93, S95 and S96 are excluded from the sectoral defintion of the business economy here as these sectors are not available from Eurostat. However these sectors are included in the Irish data figure.

Table 5.3 Purchases in the total business economy¹ by sector and size class, 2014
	Total purchases	Purchases for resale	Purchases for resale as a % of total purchases
	€m	€m	%

Industry	89,360	5,568	6.2
SMEs (<250)	28,514	3,536	12.4
Large (250+)	60,846	2,032	3.3
Construction	5,419	29	0.5
SMEs (<250)	5,010	26	0.5
Large (250+)	410	3	0.7
Distribution	117,673	102,032	86.7
SMEs (<250)	94,448	82,485	87.3
Large (250+)	23,225	19,547	84.2
Services	136,915	48,082	35.1
SMEs (<250)	71,987	35,134	48.8
Large (250+)	64,928	12,948	19.9

Total Business Economy	349,367	155,711	44.6
SMEs (<250)	199,959	121,181	60.6
Large (250+)	149,409	34,530	23.1
Source: CSO structural business surveys
¹The total business economy includes NACE Rev. 2 Sections B to N (excluding K) and R92, R93, S95 and S96.

Business In Ireland 2014

Business Costs in Ireland

Business Costs in Ireland

Personnel costs

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