Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources 2020

Impact of COVID-19 on earnings statistics

The COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions applied in response to it had a significant impact on the Labour Market in 2020. Earnings statistics for 2020 and comparisons with earlier years are impacted by changes in the composition of the labour market across 2020 and when compared to 2019 and earlier years. As shown in the Main Results chapter, the level of earnings has also been impacted by COVID-19 income support schemes introduced in 2020.

These factors should be taken into account when considering the results presented in this publication.

In 2020, 39.8% of all employments earned between €400 and €800 per week

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. 

Figure 3.1 below shows the weekly earnings at each percentile on the earnings distribution for 2020. It also highlights the Mean and Median earnings for that year.

In 2020 the median weekly earnings were €629.46 (half of all jobs earned more than this amount and half earned less). 

Mean weekly earnings in 2020 were €801.41. Figure 3.1 below illustrates that 64% of employees earned less than the mean, while 36% earned more than the mean.

Figure 3.2 presents the distribution of employments by weekly earnings and sex.

It shows a greater proportion of female employees at the lower end of the distribution, when compared to male employees.

Figure 3.3 presents the distribution of employees by weekly earnings and age group.

The 15-24 year-old age group has the highest proportion of employees at the lower end of the distribution.

As age increases the distribution of earnings flattens out, meaning a smaller proportion of employees in the lower end of the distribution. This trend continues up to the 50-59 years age group, where there is a small reversal of the trend, while for the 60 years and over age group there is a more significant movement in the proportion of employments back the lower end of the distribution. 

Table 3.1 above shows the earnings at every 10th percentile in each of the years 2013 to 2020.

Figure 3.4 and Table 3.2 below present the percentage change in earnings (year on year) at every 10th percentile.

Between 2013 and 2014 there were small increases in the lower percentiles and small decreases in the higher percentiles.

In the 2014-2015 period there were increases in all the percentiles displayed, with the highest increase (1.9%) in the 10th percentile.

Between 2015 and 2016 there were again increases in all the percentiles displayed, but the most significant increases were in the lowest 3 percentiles shown (10th, 20th and 30th), which experienced increases in earnings of 3.7%, 4% and 3.6% respectively.

There were significant increases in all percentiles displayed for both the 2016-2017, 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 periods. 

Between 2019 and 2020 there was very strong increases in all the percentiles displayed. However, 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 in 2020. Earnings statistics for 2020 and comparisons with earlier years are impacted by changes in the composition of the labour market across 2020 and when compared to 2019 and earlier years. The level of earnings has also been impacted by COVID-19 income support schemes introduced in 2020.

Figure 3.5 and Table 3.3 show that, in 2020, 24.7% of all employments earned less than €400 per week. Employments earning between €400 and €800 per week accounted for 39.8% of all employments. Over a third (35.5%) of all employments earned more than €800 per week while 8.0% of employments earned €1,600 or more per week.

The economic sector with the highest proportion of employments earning less than €400 per week was the Accommodation & food services sector (65.1%), while the Information & communication sector (28.5%) had the highest proportion of employments earning €1,600 or more per week.

Table 3.4 below presents the proportion of employments for each main economic sector by decile for the year 2020. The deciles are calculated based on the earnings of all employments.

Looking at the table we see that the sectors with the highest proportion of employments whose earnings are in the bottom decile of earnings are the Accommodation & food services sector (28%) and the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector (25%).

At the other end of the earnings distribution, the sectors with the highest proportion of employments whose earnings are in the top decile of earnings are the Information & communication sector (33%) and the Financial, insurance & real estate sector (23%).

Go to: Economic Sector and Firm Size