Back to Top

Pulse Survey now running Five years on, we're measuring the lasting impact of COVID-19 on our lives in our latest short Pulse Survey. CSO Pulse Surveys are anonymous and open to all. #CSOTakePart

 Skip navigation

Distribution of Earnings

Distribution of Earnings

Employments in the 90th percentile had weekly earnings more than six times greater than those in the 10th percentile

CSO statistical publication, , 11am
Release Note

Data in relation to hours worked is not available through the PMOD file which is used to create the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) dataset. However, this data is provided in the CSO's Labour Force Survey (LFS). Hours worked may provide additional insights into the difference in earnings, particularly between males and females. LFS data shows that in general males tend to work more hours per week compared with their female counterparts.

A considerable proportion of employments in the lower earnings percentiles include employments related to Community Employment (CE) Schemes, generally among males in the Human Health & Social Work sector. In 2023, most of these employments were recorded in the 10th earnings percentile. In previous years, these employments were recorded between the 8th and 14th earnings percentiles, which are not presented in this analysis.

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.

In 2023, median weekly earnings in Ireland stood at €699.28 (half of all jobs earned more than this amount and half earned less), an increase of 4.2% on the corresponding figure for 2022 (€670.90). In comparison, mean weekly earnings stood at €895.51, 4.6% higher than the previous year (€856.21). Median annual earnings, which were calculated based on employments active for at least 50 weeks of the reference year, were recorded at €43,221 in 2023, compared with €41,823 in 2022.

Employments with weekly earnings in the 5th percentile recorded the smallest annual increase in earnings (2.4%), from €171.95 in 2022 to €176.00 in 2023. This compares with an annual increase of 5.0% among employments in the 25th earnings percentile, where weekly earnings rose from €421.12 in 2022 to €442.03 in 2023. Also of note is the considerable increase in weekly earnings among employments in the 10th earnings percentile (7.4%). This is likely accounted for by employments under the Community Employment (CE) Scheme, which tend to be recorded in the lower percentiles (8th – 14th) each year (See Figure 2.1).

Figure 2.1 Distribution of weekly earnings by percentile and associated annual change, 2023

Sex

In 2023, a greater proportion of female employments were at the lower end of the earnings distribution, when compared with their male counterparts. Almost one in three female employments (32.1%) had weekly earnings of less than €450, while almost one in five male employments (19.4%) had similar weekly earnings. More than 12% of employments (12.8%) had weekly earnings of €1,500 or more. Less than one in ten females were in this cohort (8.9%), while 16.8% of males had weekly earnings of €1,500 or more (See Table DDA16).

Growth in median weekly earnings among employments held by females (5.1%) was greater than that among employments held by males (3.9%) in 2023. This was particularly evident in the Industry, Construction, and Wholesale & Retail Trade sectors where annual growth in earnings among females stood at 5.7%, 5.4%, and 5.8%, respectively, compared with 4.4%, 4.0% and 3.9% for males. In contrast, the annual increase in median weekly earnings among males was greater than that among females in six economic sectors, including Education and Administrative & Support Services (See Figure 2.2).

In terms of age group, the lowest annual increase in median weekly earnings was recorded among the 25-29 years age group at 3.0%, from €644.04 in 2022 to €663.13 in 2023. The proportion of total employments in this age category has been reducing steadily since 2011. The 25-29 years age group accounted for 11.1% of the total employments in 2023, compared with 14.8% in 2011. In contrast, employments among those in the 50-59 years age category recorded the highest annual percentage change in median weekly earnings in 2023, at 4.8%, increasing from €767.42 in 2022 to €804.27 in 2023 (See Table DDA02).

Figure 2.2 Median weekly earnings by economic sector and sex and the associated annual change, 2023

Economic Sector

The largest increase in median weekly earnings by economic sector in 2023 was recorded in Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities (6.7%), followed by Information & Communication (6.6%), in comparison with Transportation & Storage where weekly earnings rose by 2.7%. Five of the thirteen economic sectors recorded growth less than that of the overall growth in 2023 (4.2%), including Transport & Storage (2.7%), Education (3.0%), Public Administration & Defence (3.6%), Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities (3.7%), and Construction (3.8%).

Almost two-thirds (63.2%) of employments in the Accommodation & Food Services sector had weekly earnings of less than €450, while more than half (53.2%) of the employments in the Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services sector had similar weekly earnings. In contrast, 5.9% of employments in the Information & Communication sector had earnings of less than €450 per week, while almost one in five employments in this sector had weekly earnings of €2,550 or more (17.1%) (See Table DDA17).

The private sector accounted for almost four in five employments (79.1%), while the public sector employments accounted for the remaining 20.9% of all employments in 2023. This compares with 78.7% and 21.3%, respectively, the previous year in 2022. Although they remained a higher proportion throughout, the proportion of employments represented by the private sector tended to decrease with increased earnings. Within the private sector, 60.9% of employments had weekly earnings of less than €750, in contrast with 29.3% of public sector employments. Weekly earnings between €750 and €899 were recorded among 9.8% of private sector employments in 2023, compared with 14.8% in the public sector. At the upper end of the distribution, a larger proportion of private sector employments (4.3%) had weekly earnings of €2,400 or more in 2023, compared with public sector employments (2.2%) (See Table DDA18).

Annual Change in Earnings by Percentile

Median weekly earnings rose by 4.2%, from €670.90 in 2022 to €699.28 in 2023. The annual percentage change was relatively equal across each of the earnings percentiles, apart from employments represented in the 5th, 10th and 15th percentiles (See Tables 2.2 and DDA10). When considering these results, it should be taken into account that the COVID-19 pandemic, and the restrictions applied in response to it, had a significant impact on the labour market across 2020, 2021 and 2022. Earnings statistics for this period and comparisons with other years are impacted by changes in the composition of the labour market. The level of earnings was also impacted by COVID-19 income support schemes in place between 2020 and 2022.

Despite comparable growth across the earnings deciles, the gap in weekly earnings between employments in the 10th and 90th earnings percentiles has increased in recent years. In 2023, employments in the 90th percentile (€1,663.72) had weekly earnings more than six times higher than those in the 10th percentile (€247.50); a difference of €1,416.22. This compares with a difference of €1,077.32 in 2016  (See Tables 2.1 and DDA10).

Table 2.1 Weekly earnings by decile (every 10th percentile), 2016 - 2023

Table 2.2 Annual change in weekly earnings by decile (every 10th percentile), 2016 - 2023