Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources 2025

Distribution by Percentile

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 2.1 below shows the weekly earnings at each percentile on the earnings distribution for 2025. It also highlights the mean and median earnings for that year.

In 2025, the median weekly earnings were €759.21 (half of all employments earned more than this amount and half earned less), while mean weekly earnings stood at €974.08. Figure 2.1 below illustrates that almost two-thirds of employments earned less than the mean in 2025.

Distribution by Sex

Figure 2.2 presents the distribution of employments by weekly earnings and sex. It shows a greater proportion of female employments at the lower end of the distribution compared with their male counterparts.

More than two in five employments held by females (41.9%) earned less than €600 per week, while less than one in three male employments (28.0%) had similar weekly earnings.

Distribution by Age Group

Figure 2.3 presents the distribution of employments by weekly earnings and age group. The 15-24 years age group had the highest proportion of employments at the lower end of the distribution. The majority of employments (58.5%) among this age group earned less than €450 per week. Similarly, almost one-third (31.7%) of employments among the 60 years and over age group recorded weekly earnings of less than €450.

Earnings tended to increase with age. A greater proportion of employments were at the upper end of the distribution among those over 30 years. More than one-third of employments among the 30-39 (35.0%) and 40-49 (33.3%) years age groups recorded weekly earnings between €1,050 and €1,799. The 50-59 years age category recorded the largest proportion of high earners in 2025, with 10.5% earning at least €2,250 per week.

Distribution by Economic Sector

Figure 2.4 below shows that almost one-fifth (19.1%) of all employments earned less than €400 per week in 2025, while employments earning between €400 and €800 per week accounted for 34.2% of all employments. More than one-third (33.4%) of employments had weekly earnings between €800 and €1,600, while a further 13.4% 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 Accommodation & Food Services (48.7%), followed by Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services at 43.1%. In contrast, in 2025 the Information & Communication sector had the highest proportion of employments earning €1,600 or more per week (46.8%).

Distribution by Decile

Table 2.2 below outlines the earnings by percentile in each of the years 2018 to 2025. The 10^th earnings percentile refers to the employments with earnings in the bottom 10%, while the 90^th percentile refers to employments with earnings in the top 10%.

Between 2024 and 2025 there were increases across each decile (every 10^th percentile). The largest increase in weekly earnings were recorded for the 10^th (€271.41) and 30^th (€549.81) percentiles which rose by 4.6% and 4.4%, respectively, in 2025. The 90^th percentile rose by 3.4%, from €1,739.87 in 2024 to €1,798.47 in 2025.

Table 2.3 below presents the proportion of employments for each economic sector by decile for the year 2025. The deciles are calculated based on the earnings of all employments.

Similar to previous years, the sectors with the highest proportion of employments whose earnings were in the bottom decile of weekly earnings were Accommodation & Food Services (29.6%) and Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services (24.7%). At the other end of the earnings distribution, the sectors with the highest proportion of employments whose earnings were in the top decile of weekly earnings were Information & Communication (39.9%) and Financial, Insurance & Real Estate (24.0%).