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Business in Ireland 2018

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 chapters¹, 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 persons engaged)	9.3	90.7
Large (250+ persons engaged)	12.6	87.4
Total Business Economy	10.6	89.4

Wages & salaries accounted for 89.4% of personnel costs for the total Business Economy in 2018
Large enterprises (250+ persons engaged) paid 12.6% of personnel costs in social security compared to 9.3% paid by SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
Social security contributions for the total Business Economy made up 10.6% of personnel costs

	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)	Large (250+ persons engaged)	All enterprises
Industry	6.2	16.4	12.1
Construction	11.8	12.1	11.9
Distribution	9.5	11.3	10
Services	9.3	10.4	9.8
Total Business Economy	9.3	12.6	10.5

For SMEs, social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs ranged from as low as 6.2% in the Industry sector to a high of 11.8% in the Construction sector in 2018
Large enterprises experienced higher social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs than SMEs, ranging from 10.4% for the Services sector to a high of 16.4% for the Industry sector

	Social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs
Sweden	31.8
France	28.8
Italy	27.6
Belgium	26.2
Czech Republic	26.1
Slovakia	25.1
Estonia	25
Austria	22.8
Lithuania	22.4
Portugal	22.3
Spain	22.2
Greece	19.9
Netherlands	19.2
Finland	19.1
Romania	18.7
Latvia	18.2
Germany	17.6
Hungary	17.3
Poland	16.5
Bulgaria	14.8
Croatia	14
United Kingdom	13.4
Slovenia	13
Cyprus	12.9
Luxembourg	12.6
Ireland	10.3
Denmark	7.9
Malta	6.5

Ireland had the third lowest social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs in the EU28 for 2017 (10.3%)
Sweden reported the highest rate of personnel costs being spent on social security (31.8%)
The United Kingdom had a higher rate than Ireland of social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs (13.4%)

The Services sector accounted for 48.0% of total wages & salaries paid in Ireland's Business Economy in 2018
Ireland's Industry and Distribution sectors each accounted for over one fifth of total wages & salaries paid
The Construction sector's share of total wages & salaries paid in Ireland in 2018 was 10.3%

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Wages and salaries
Industry	21.7
Construction	10.3
Distribution	20.1
Services	48

	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)	Large (250+ persons engaged)	All enterprises
Industry	42297	54264	48115
Construction	38530	52496	39553
Distribution	29165	31462	29825
Services	28069	46788	33279
Total Business Economy	31247	45320	35396

Persons engaged in the Industrial sector enjoyed the highest sectoral wages in Ireland in 2018 (€48,115 per person engaged)
In contrast, persons engaged in the Distribution sector had the lowest wages (€29,825 per person engaged)
In the total Business Economy in 2018, persons engaged in SMEs had average wages of €31,247 while those in Large enterprises had average wages of €45,320

The Industry sector had the largest share of total purchases in the Business Economy in Ireland in 2018 (33.8%)
The Services and Distribution sectors accounted for 32.6% and 29.9% respectively of total Business Economy purchases
The smallest sector was the Construction sector with just 3.7% of total purchases in the Irish Business Economy

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Total purchases
Industry	33.8
Construction	3.7
Distribution	29.9
Services	32.6

5.1 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total Business Economy by sector and size class, 2018

5.2 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total Business Economy, EU28 countries, 2017

5.3 Total purchases by enterprises in the Business Economy by sector and size class, 2018

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, 2018
Sector and size class²	Personnel costs	Wages & salaries	Social security costs	Social security costs as a % of personnel costs	Wages & salaries per person engaged
	€m	€m	€m	%	€uro
Industry	13,716	12,059	1,657	12.1	48,115
SMEs (<250)	5,809	5,447	362	6.2	42,297
Large (250+)	7,907	6,612	1,295	16.4	54,264
Construction	6,486	5,716	770	11.9	39,553
SMEs (<250)	5,854	5,160	693	11.8	38,530
Large (250+)	632	556	76	12.1	52,496
Distribution	12,430	11,183	1,246	10.0	29,825
SMEs (<250)	8,607	7,792	815	9.5	29,165
Large (250+)	3,823	3,392	431	11.3	31,462
Services	29,623	26,728	2,895	9.8	33,279
SMEs (<250)	17,943	16,268	1,676	9.3	28,069
Large (250+)	11,680	10,460	1,219	10.4	46,788
Total Business Economy	62,255	55,687	6,568	10.5	35,396
SMEs (<250)	38,213	34,667	3,546	9.3	31,247
Large (250+)	24,042	21,020	3,022	12.6	45,320
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.
²Totals may differ due to rounding.

Table 5.2 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total Business Economy¹, EU28 countries, 2017
	Personnel costs	Wages & salaries	Social security costs	Social security costs as a % of personnel costs
	€m	€m	€m	%
European Union (28 countries)	4,345,722	3,436,586	909,129	20.9
Belgium	116,062	85,651	30,412	26.2
Bulgaria	13,322	11,348	1,974	14.8
Czech Republic	52,709	38,959	13,743	26.1
Denmark	87,258	80,330	6,928	7.9
Germany	1,101,605	908,030	193,576	17.6
Estonia	7,065	5,298	1,767	25.0
Ireland	56,268	50,472	5,796	10.3
Greece	28,777	23,039	5,737	19.9
Spain	302,683	235,515	67,167	22.2
France	720,597	512,730	207,867	28.8
Croatia	12,922	11,113	1,809	14.0
Italy	396,774	287,346	109,428	27.6
Cyprus	4,834	4,211	623	12.9
Latvia	6,423	5,254	1,169	18.2
Lithuania	10,385	8,057	2,329	22.4
Luxembourg	14,526	12,702	1,824	12.6
Hungary	32,805	27,123	5,683	17.3
Malta	2,645	2,473	173	6.5
Netherlands	196,720	158,878	37,841	19.2
Austria	117,874	91,030	26,844	22.8
Poland	100,562	83,919	16,643	16.5
Portugal	47,919	37,252	10,667	22.3
Romania	36,470	29,635	6,835	18.7
Slovenia	12,832	11,159	1,673	13.0
Slovakia	20,108	15,060	5,048	25.1
Finland	61,921	50,096	11,825	19.1
Sweden	157,525	107,461	50,064	31.8
United Kingdom	626,132	542,450	83,683	13.4
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 Total purchases by enterprises in the Business Economy¹ by sector and size class, 2018
	Total purchases	Percentage of total Business Economy
	€m	%
Industry	172,591	33.8
SMEs (<250)	38,300	15.3
Large (250+)	134,291	51.6
Construction	18,905	3.7
SMEs (<250)	16,570	6.6
Large (250+)	2,335	0.9
Distribution	152,449	29.9
SMEs (<250)	127,584	51.0
Large (250+)	24,865	9.5
Services	166,700	32.6
SMEs (<250)	67,766	27.1
Large (250+)	98,934	38.0
Total Business Economy	510,645	100.0
SMEs (<250)	250,220	49.0
Large (250+)	260,425	51.0
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 2018

Business Costs in Ireland

Business Costs in Ireland

Personnel costs

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