In 2024, gender representation across total employments was relatively equal; of the employments active for at least 50 weeks of the reference year, 50.6% were represented by males while 49.4% were represented by females.
There was greater disparity in gender representation among high earners. Among employments with earnings in the top 25%, males accounted for 61.0% while females accounted for 39.0%. Similarly, males represented almost three-quarters (72.4%) of employments with earnings in the top 1%, while the corresponding figure for females was 27.6%. It is worth noting that the proportion of employments with earnings in the top 1% represented by females increased by 8.1 percentage points in the decade since 2014 (19.5%) and 5.0 percentage points since 2019 (22.6%).
Figure 2.2 presents the gender representation across each economic sector at various earnings levels. In 2024, males represented a higher proportion of the total employments in eight of the 13 economic sectors compared with females, however they accounted for the majority of the top 1% of earnings across all sectors.
In the Construction sector, the gender representation was relatively consistent across the earnings levels analysed. In this male-dominated sector, males accounted for 84.9% of total employments, while the remaining 15.1% of employments were held by females. Among the top earners employed in this sector, most were males (93.0%), compared with females (7.0%).
In contrast, the greatest disparity between female representation in total employments and those in the top 1% of earnings occurred in the Human Health & Social Work sector. In 2024, females represented more than three-quarters (76.3%) of all employments in Human Health & Social Work, compared with 38.2% of employments among those with earnings in the top 1%. Similarly, females accounted for 73.1% of employments in the Education sector, while accounting for 35.7% of employments within the top 1% of earnings.
The highest median annual earnings in 2024 were recorded in Dublin at €49,224, followed by Kildare (€48,431), Wicklow (€46,527), Cork (€46,416), and Meath (€46,272). These five counties had median annual earnings greater than those of the State at €44,816. The lowest median annual earnings were recorded in Donegal (€36,967), Monaghan (€37,867), and Longford (€38,857) in 2024.
The disparity in median annual earnings recorded for employments among males and females varied by county. In 2024, employments among males (€44,065) in Sligo recorded annual earnings 7.7% higher than those among females (€40,911), while in Kildare median annual earnings among males (€54,689) were 29.6% higher than their female counterparts (€42,203). In general, greater disparity in annual earnings between employments among males and females was recorded for counties with the highest earnings in 2024.
The highest concentration of employments was recorded in Dublin in 2024. Almost one-third (29.9%) of the total employments were held by employees living in Dublin, while a further 14.8% of employments were occupied by those living in the Mid-East (Kildare, Louth, Meath, and Wicklow). This compares with 5.7% of employments among those living in the Midlands region (Laois, Longford, Offaly, and Westmeath). More than half of employments with earnings in the top 1% were held by those residing in Dublin (56.1%), in contrast with the Border (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo) and Midlands regions which, combined, represented 4.1% of the top earners.
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