Median weekly earnings increased by 4.5% from €699.28 in 2023 to €730.89 in 2024. The Information & Communication sector recorded the highest median weekly earnings in 2024 at €1,440.36, an increase of 6.2% on the equivalent figure in 2023. For employments in the Information & Communication sector, median weekly earnings were 26.8% higher among males (€1,561.82) compared with their female counterparts (€1,231.35). The Financial, Insurance & Real Estate sector had the next highest median weekly earnings at €1,027.24. In contrast, the lowest median earnings were recorded in the Accommodation & Food Services sector at €391.62 (See Table 3.3).
Median weekly earnings increased across each economic sector. Despite recording the lowest weekly earnings, employments in Accommodation & Food Services recorded the largest annual increase in earnings at 7.5%. Similarly, employments in Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services recorded an increase in median weekly earnings of 6.5%, while those in Information & Communication rose by 6.2%.
Median weekly earnings in the public sector stood at €1,009.44 in 2024, up 4.7% from €964.30 in 2023. Similarly, median weekly earnings among employments in the private sector recorded an annual increase of 4.6%, from €632.82 in 2023 to €661.87 in 2024.
| X-axis label | Median | Mean |
|---|---|---|
| Industry (B-E) | 871.87 | 1128.53 |
| Construction (F) | 770.19 | 863.85 |
| Wholesale & retail (G) | 550.36 | 705.63 |
| Transportation & storage (H) | 752.95 | 873.88 |
| Accommodation & food (I) | 391.62 | 432.72 |
| Information & communication (J) | 1440.36 | 1842.09 |
| Financial & real estate (K-L) | 1027.24 | 1377.26 |
| Professional & technical (M) | 897.83 | 1187.88 |
| Admin & support service (N) | 632.72 | 799.39 |
| Public admin & defence (O) | 993.09 | 1104 |
| Education (P) | 890.18 | 945.2 |
| Health & social (Q) | 787.15 | 914.16 |
| Arts & entertainment (R-S) | 454.34 | 574.63 |
| All sectors | 730.89 | 942.73 |
Table 3.4 below presents the annual percentage change in mean and median weekly earnings for employments that were active in October of each reference year i.e. where the employee was in the same employment during both years being analysed. For example, for 2021 - 2022 only employments that existed in October in both 2021 and 2022 were included for analysis. If an employment existed in October 2021 but not in October 2022, or vice-versa, then it was excluded from analysis.
More than three-quarters (76.1%) of employments active in 2023, remained active into 2024. This was an increase of 1.6 percentage points on the proportion of employments that remained active between 2022 and 2023 (74.5%). Among the continuously active employments between 2023 and 2024, median weekly earnings increased by 6.9%.
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