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Business in Ireland 2019

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)	9.1	90.9
Large (250+ persons engaged)	13.1	86.9
Total Business Economy	10.7	89.3

Wages & salaries accounted for 89.3% of personnel costs for the total Business Economy in 2019
Large enterprises (250+ persons engaged) paid 13.1% of personnel costs in social security compared to 9.1% paid by SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
Social security contributions for the total Business Economy made up 10.7% of personnel costs

	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)	Large (250+ persons engaged)	All enterprises
Industry	8.9	19	14.4
Construction	12.8	12.1	12.7
Distribution	8.5	10.9	9.2
Services	8.3	9.9	8.9
Total Business Economy	9.1	13.1	10.7

For SMEs, social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs ranged from as low as 8.3% in the Services sector to a high of 12.8% in the Construction sector in 2019
Large enterprises experienced higher social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs than SMEs, ranging from 9.9% for the Services sector to a high of 19.0% for the Industry sector

X-axis label	Social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs
Sweden	31.7
France	28.8
Italy	28
Czechia	26
Belgium	25.1
Slovakia	25.1
Estonia	25
Austria	23.1
Lithuania	22.4
Portugal	22.4
Spain	22.2
Greece	19.8
Netherlands	19.5
Latvia	19
Finland	18.5
Germany	18
Poland	16.9
Hungary	15.7
Bulgaria	14.9
Croatia	13.6
United Kingdom	13.3
Slovenia	13.1
Cyprus	12.9
Luxembourg	12.4
IRELAND	10.6
Denmark	7.7
Malta	6.4
Romania	3.3

Ireland had the fourth lowest social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs in the EU28 for 2018 (10.6%)
Sweden reported the highest rate of personnel costs being spent on social security (31.7%)
The United Kingdom had a higher rate than Ireland of social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs (13.3%)

The Services sector accounted for 48.9% of total wages & salaries paid in Ireland's Business Economy in 2019
Ireland's Industry and Distribution sectors accounted for 22.5% and 18.2% respectively
The Construction sector's share of total wages & salaries paid in Ireland in 2019 was 10.4%

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Wages and salaries
Industry	22.5
Construction	10.4
Distribution	18.2
Services	48.9

	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)	Large (250+ persons engaged)	All enterprises
Industry	49277	54064	51643
Construction	38470	57870	39992
Distribution	28028	28830	28260
Services	28046	44385	32952
Total Business Economy	31714	43766	35417

Persons engaged in the Industrial sector enjoyed the highest sectoral wages in Ireland in 2019 (€51,643 per person engaged)
In contrast, persons engaged in the Distribution sector had the lowest wages (€28,260 per person engaged)
In the total Business Economy in 2019, persons engaged in SMEs had average wages of €31,714 while those in large enterprises had average wages of €43,766

The Services sector had the largest share of total purchases in the Business Economy in Ireland in 2019 (36.2%)
The Industry and Distribution sectors accounted for 31.3% and 26.6% respectively of total Business Economy purchases
The smallest sector was the Construction sector with just 5.9% of total purchases in the Irish Business Economy

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Total purchases
Industry	31.3
Construction	5.9
Distribution	26.6
Services	36.2

5.1 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total Business Economy by sector and size class, 2019

5.2 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total Business Economy, EU28 countries, 2018

5.3 Total purchases by enterprises in the Business Economy by sector and size class, 2019

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, 2019
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	15,957	13,654	2,303	14.4	51,643
SMEs (<250)	7,234	6,587	647	8.9	49,277
Large (250+)	8,723	7,067	1,656	19.0	54,064
Construction	7,252	6,328	925	12.7	39,992
SMEs (<250)	6,435	5,609	825	12.8	38,470
Large (250+)	818	718	99	12.1	57,870
Distribution	12,154	11,037	1,118	9.2	28,260
SMEs (<250)	8,495	7,777	718	8.5	28,028
Large (250+)	3,659	3,260	399	10.9	28,830
Services	32,574	29,659	2,914	8.9	32,952
SMEs (<250)	19,256	17,665	1,591	8.3	28,046
Large (250+)	13,318	11,994	1,324	9.9	44,385
Total Business Economy	67,938	60,679	7,259	10.7	35,417
SMEs (<250)	41,420	37,639	3,781	9.1	31,714
Large (250+)	26,518	23,039	3,478	13.1	43,766
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, 2018
	Personnel costs	Wages & salaries	Social security costs	Social security costs as a % of personnel costs
	€m	€m	€m	%
European Union (28 countries)	4,580,794	3,626,579	954,079	20.8
Belgium	120,855	90,518	30,337	25.1
Bulgaria	14,833	12,626	2,207	14.9
Czech Republic	59,070	43,711	15,359	26.0
Denmark	89,764	82,813	6,951	7.7
Germany	1,178,505	966,659	211,846	18.0
Estonia	7,817	5,861	1,956	25.0
Ireland	60,947	54,491	6,448	10.6
Greece	30,387	24,230	6,028	19.8
Spain	324,716	252,582	72,135	22.2
France	742,573	528,721	213,852	28.8
Croatia	14,041	12,135	1,906	13.6
Italy	410,858	295,950	114,908	28.0
Cyprus	5,308	4,624	685	12.9
Latvia	7,233	5,859	1,374	19.0
Lithuania	11,616	9,010	2,606	22.4
Luxembourg	15,369	13,461	1,908	12.4
Hungary	35,403	29,834	5,569	15.7
Malta	2,893	2,709	184	6.4
Netherlands	209,191	168,480	40,711	19.5
Austria	125,237	96,271	28,966	23.1
Poland	119,459	99,261	20,197	16.9
Portugal	51,891	40,277	11,614	22.4
Romania	39,901	38,575	1,326	3.3
Slovenia	13,975	12,148	1,827	13.1
Slovakia	22,090	16,548	5,542	25.1
Finland	64,453	52,514	11,939	18.5
Sweden	155,887	106,466	49,420	31.7
United Kingdom	646,525	560,245	86,279	13.3
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, 2019
	Total purchases	Percentage of total Business Economy
	€m	%
Industry	182,546	31.3
SMEs (<250)	36,631	13.9
Large (250+)	145,915	45.7
Construction	34,588	5.9
SMEs (<250)	29,914	11.4
Large (250+)	4,674	1.5
Distribution	154,838	26.6
SMEs (<250)	118,727	45.1
Large (250+)	36,110	11.3
Services	210,755	36.2
SMEs (<250)	78,068	29.6
Large (250+)	132,687	41.5
Total Business Economy	582,727	100.0
SMEs (<250)	263,341	45.2
Large (250+)	319,387	54.8
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 2019

Business Costs in Ireland

Business Costs in Ireland

Personnel costs

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