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Business In Ireland 2015

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.

¹Small & Medium Enterprises and 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 contributions².

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, PRSAs and other pension schemes. Also included are insurance premiums, employer’s liability insurance and private health premiums paid on behalf of employees.

² See Appendix 2 for full definition

	Social security costs	Wages & salaries
SMEs (<250)	12.6	87.4
Large (250+)	15.3	84.7
Total Business Economy	13.5	86.5

Wages & salaries accounted for 86.5% of personnel costs for the total business economy in 2015
Large enterprises paid 15.3% of personnel costs in social security compared to 12.6% paid by SMEs
Social security contributions for the total business economy made up 13.5% of personnel costs

	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)	All enterprises
Industry	8.5	16.5	13
Construction	10.9	11.3	11
Distribution	12.5	12.7	12.6
Services	13.1	15	13.6
Total Business Economy	12.6	15.3	13.5

For SMEs, social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs ranged from as low as 8.5% in the Industry sector to a high of 13.1% in the Services sector in 2015
In general, Large enterprises experience higher social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs than SMEs, ranging from 11.3% for the Construction sector to a high of 16.5% for Industry

	Social security costs as % of personnel costs
Sweden	30.2
France	29.6
Italy	28.4123359906058
Belgium	26.8
Czech Republic	26.1
Estonia	25.3
Slovakia	25
Austria	23
Lithuania	22.7
Spain	22.4
Portugal	22.3
Greece	20.9
Romania	20.9
Hungary	20.3
Finland	19.9
Netherlands	19.2
Latvia	18.5
Germany	17.6
Poland	16.7
Bulgaria	15.1
Croatia	14.6
Slovenia	13.1
United Kingdom	13.1
Cyprus	12.9
Ireland	12.8
Luxembourg	12.7
Denmark	8.6
Malta	6.49808106829294

Ireland at 12.8% had the fourth lowest social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs in the EU28 for 2014
Sweden reported the highest rate at 30.2% of personnel costs being spent on social security
The United Kingdom had a slightly higher rate of social security costs than Ireland at 13.1% of total personnel costs

The Services sector accounted for 50.5% of total wages & salaries paid in Ireland's business economy in 2015
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 2015 was 6.2%

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Wages and salaries
Industry	21.7
Construction	6.2
Distribution	21.6
Services	50.5

	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)	All enterprises
Industry	42601	52428	47343
Construction	29559	54477	35146
Distribution	31081	26159	28988
Services	34395	38671	36400
Total Business Economy	36359	41712	38811

Industrial employees enjoyed the highest sectoral wages in Ireland in 2015 at €47,343 per employee
In contrast, employees in the Distribution sector had the lowest wages at €28,988 per employee
In the total business economy in 2015, employees in SMEs had average wages of €36,359, while employees in Large enterprises had average wages of €41,712

The Services sector had the largest share of total purchases in the Business Economy in Ireland in 2015 at 34.4%
The Industry and Distribution sectors accounted for 33.8% and 30.6% of total Business Economy purchases respectively
The smallest sector was the Construction sector with only 1.2% of total purchases in the Irish Business Economy

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Total purchases
Industry	33.8
Construction	1.2
Distribution	30.6
Services	34.4

5.1 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total business economy by sector and size class, 2015

5.2 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total business economy, EU28 countries, 2014

5.3 Purchases in the total business economy by sector and size class, 2015

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, 2015
	Personnel costs	Wages & salaries	Social security costs	Social security costs as a % of personnel costs²	Wages & salaries per employee³
	€m	€m	€m	%	€uro
Industry	11,661	10,147	1,514	13.0	47,343
SMEs (<250)	5,166	4,725	441	8.5	42,601
Large (250+)	6,495	5,422	1,073	16.5	52,428
Construction	3,508	2,892	616	11.0	35,146
SMEs (<250)	3,362	2,796	566	10.9	29,559
Large (250+)	146	96	50	11.3	54,477
Distribution	11,520	10,071	1,449	12.6	28,988
SMEs (<250)	8,682	7,594	1,088	12.5	31,081
Large (250+)	2,838	2,477	361	12.7	26,159
Services	27,339	23,612	3,727	13.6	36,400
SMEs (<250)	19,232	16,719	2,513	13.1	34,395
Large (250+)	8,107	6,893	1,214	15.0	38,671

Total Business Economy	54,028	46,722	7,306	13.5	38,811
SMEs (<250)	36,442	31,834	4,608	12.6	36,359
Large (250+)	17,586	14,888	2,698	15.3	41,712
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.
² Social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs for Construction were calculated using survey returns.
³Average 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, 2014
	Personnel costs	Wages & salaries	Social security costs	Social security costs as a % of personnel costs
	€m	€m	€m	%
European Union (28 countries)	3,897,217	3,070,381	826,892	21.2
Belgium	110,750	81,016	29,733	26.8
Bulgaria	9,932	8,429	1,503	15.1
Czech Republic	41,120	30,382	10,738	26.1
Denmark	75,899	69,392	6,507	8.6
Germany	958,801	789,690	169,110	17.6
Estonia	5,770	4,312	1,458	25.3
Ireland	49,264	42,973	6,321	12.8
Greece	27,771	21,955	5,816	20.9
Spain	265,221	205,763	59,485	22.4
France	664,146	467,562	196,584	29.6
Croatia	11,204	9,570	1,633	14.6
Italy	359,880	257,630	102,250	28.4
Cyprus	4,234	3,689	545	12.9
Latvia	5,257	4,287	970	18.5
Lithuania	7,677	5,937	1,741	22.7
Luxembourg	12,309	10,748	1,561	12.7
Hungary	25,411	20,259	5,152	20.3
Malta	1,902	1,779	124	6.5
Netherlands	178,547	144,181	34,366	19.2
Austria	107,397	82,730	24,667	23.0
Poland	82,903	69,060	13,843	16.7
Portugal	40,917	31,778	9,138	22.3
Romania	25,974	20,558	5,417	20.9
Slovenia	11,007	9,560	1,447	13.1
Slovakia	16,106	12,081	4,025	25.0
Finland	57,790	46,300	11,490	19.9
Sweden	142,713	99,611	43,102	30.2
United Kingdom	599,281	520,730	78,551	13.1
Source: Eurostat
¹ The total business economy covers NACE Rev. 2 Sections B to N (excluding K) and S95. Note that R92, R93 and S96 are excluded from the sectoral definition of the business economy here as these sectors are not available from Eurostat.

Table 5.3 Purchases in the total business economy¹ by sector and size class, 2015
	Total purchases	Purchases for resale	Purchases for resale as a % of total purchases
	€m	€m	%
Industry	146,423	39,371	26.9
SMEs (<250)	28,372	3,589	12.6
Large (250+)	118,051	35,782	30.3
Construction	5,403	12	0.2
SMEs (<250)	4,958	11	0.2
Large (250+)	445	1	0.2
Distribution	132,859	115,802	87.2
SMEs (<250)	110,668	96,585	87.3
Large (250+)	22,191	19,217	86.6
Services	149,123	52,588	35.3
SMEs (<250)	75,027	39,395	52.5
Large (250+)	74,096	13,193	17.8

Total Business Economy	433,808	207,773	47.9
SMEs (<250)	219,025	139,580	63.7
Large (250+)	214,783	68,193	31.7
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 2015

Business Costs in Ireland

Business Costs in Ireland

Personnel costs

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