The COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions applied in response to it had a significant impact on the labour market between 2020 and 2022. Earnings statistics for those years and comparisons with earlier years are impacted by changes in the composition of the labour market during this period and when compared with 2019 and earlier years. The level of earnings has also been impacted by the COVID-19 income support schemes in place since 2020.
Median weekly earnings were €670.90 in 2022, an increase of 4.1% from €644.55 in 2021.
In 2022, median weekly earnings for males were €741.86 compared with €592.92 for females.
Median weekly earnings rose by 20.5% over the five years from 2017 to 2022.
The economic sectors with the highest median weekly earnings were Information & Communication (€1,272.45) and Financial, Insurance & Real Estate (€942.45). The sector with the lowest median weekly earnings was Accommodation & Food Services (€348.84).
Median weekly earnings for Dublin were €757.03 in 2022, which was 12.8% higher than the median weekly earnings for the State at €670.90, and 40.2% higher than Donegal which, at €540.00, had the lowest median weekly earnings.
Of employments that were active in October 2021, 73.6% were also active in October 2022. For those employments that were active in both periods, median weekly earnings rose by 7.7%.
Of employments that were active in October 2022, 8.8% were supported by the Wage Subsidy Schemes (WSS) at some point during that year, compared with 20.0% in 2021. WSS payments accounted for 0.6% of total earnings across all employments in 2022.
The Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) publication presents earnings statistics compiled based on administrative data sources. The primary data source is the Revenue Commissioner’s employee tax data. This is linked to the CSO Business Register and other data to provide economic and demographic breakdowns of employee earnings in Ireland. The data used for this analysis has been restricted to employments that were active in the month of October 2022.
The Wage Subsidy Schemes include the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) which was active for part of 2020, and the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) which was active for part of 2020, all of 2021 and part of 2022.
| X-axis label | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 2.6 | 1.9 | 2.5 |
| 2018 | 3.5 | 2.3 | 3 |
| 2019 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| 2020 | 3.7 | 7.3 | 5.2 |
| 2021 | 3.1 | 1.6 | 2.4 |
| 2022 | 4.2 | 4 | 4.1 |
| Table 1.1 Median1 weekly earnings by sex, 2017-2022 | |||||||||
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Annual Change (2021-2022) | Five Year Change (2017-2022) | ||
| € | € | € | € | € | € | % | % | ||
| Male | 615.37 | 636.63 | 666.22 | 690.56 | 711.87 | 741.86 | 4.2 | 20.6 | |
| Female | 488.85 | 500.00 | 523.10 | 561.23 | 570.22 | 592.92 | 4.0 | 21.3 | |
| Total | 556.61 | 573.35 | 598.36 | 629.46 | 644.55 | 670.90 | 4.1 | 20.5 | |
| Source: CSO Ireland, Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources | |||||||||
| 1Median weekly earnings: Half of the employees earn more than this amount and half earn less. | |||||||||
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (10 October 2023) issued Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources for 2022.
Commenting on the data, Eimear Heffernan, Statistician in the Earnings Analysis Division, said: "Median weekly earnings were €670.90 in 2022, an increase of 4.1% from €644.55 in 2021.
Median Weekly Earnings
In 2022, median weekly earnings for males were €741.86 compared with €592.92 for females.
The economic sectors with the highest median weekly earnings were Information & Communication (€1,272.45) and Financial, Insurance & Real Estate (€942.45). The sector with the lowest earnings was Accommodation & Food Services (€348.84).
Median weekly earnings rose by 20.5% over the five years from 2017 to 2022.
Distribution of Earnings
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 2022, almost 65.0% of employments earned less than the mean, or average, weekly earnings of €856.21. Median weekly earnings in 2022 were €670.90 with half of all employments earning more than this amount and half earning less.
Earnings by County
Looking at earnings by county, median weekly earnings for Dublin were €757.03 in 2022. This was 12.8% higher than the median weekly earnings for the State at €670.90, and 40.2% higher than Donegal which, at €540.00, had the lowest median weekly earnings.
The largest increase in median weekly earnings was observed in Limerick, where earnings increased by 7.4%, from €625.96 in 2021 to €672.34 in 2022. In contrast, median weekly earnings increased by 2.6% in Kilkenny, from €638.51 in 2021 to €655.13 in 2022."