This chapter presents data on earnings and labour costs compiled from the Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS) as well as the Labour Market Insight Bulletin Series.
The EHECS survey has been conducted since Quarter 1 2008, providing short-term trends of earnings and labour costs in the economy. These trends are published in the Earnings and Labour Costs Quarterly release.
The COVID-19 crisis had a significant impact on the EHECS data collection and on Earnings and Labour Costs estimates in 2020. To complement the Earnings and Labour Costs results, the Labour Market Insight Bulletin Series was published to provide to users high-level supplementary labour market analysis. The data used is sourced from administrative datasets, namely Revenue's employee level tax data, which includes information in relation to the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), as well as data provided from Revenue in relation to the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS).
In this chapter, average earnings and hours worked are broken down by NACE economic sector for Q4 2019 and Q4 2020 in Table 21.1. Percentage change in earnings by sector and quarter are found in Table 21.2 and percentage of employments and total earnings supported by EWSS in Table 21.3. Percentage change in earnings by sector and quarter for employments that were active in both quarters can be seen in Table 21.4.
When considering the change in earnings, it should be noted that there may be a compositional effect due to the significant changes in employment in certain sectors. The composition of the labour market in Q4 2020 was very different to the composition of the labour market in Q4 2019, against which the annual change is measured. Government measures were put in place in response to COVID-19, which resulted in the closures of non-essential businesses at the end of Q1 2020. These restrictions were lifted and re-imposed over the course of 2020, with some sectors being affected by business closures for some or all weeks of Q4 2020. Across and within economic sectors the impact of the COVID-19 crisis was experienced very differently. The change in average weekly earnings may be impacted to some degree by those employments that have left or joined a sector having lower/higher average earnings than those employments that remained in the sector in both quarters.
During 2020, three major schemes were being operated by the Government to support those whose income from employment had been affected due to COVID-19. The COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) scheme, which is administered by the Department of Social Protection (DSP), operated to provide a social welfare payment to those who lost their employment because of the COVID-19 crisis. The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) and the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), which are administered by the Revenue Commissioners, were also operational during 2020. Any payments related to the PUP scheme are not collected by EHECS or recorded in the ELC release or Labour Market Insight Bulletin Series. TWSS and EWSS payments are included in wages and salaries for employees benefiting from the scheme.
| Average Weekly Earnings Q4 2019 | Average Weekly Earnings Q4 2020 | |
| Industry | 915 | 969.8 |
| Construction | 841.01 | 888.54 |
| Wholesale & Retail | 602.86 | 635.24 |
| Transportation | 827.71 | 799.32 |
| Accommodation & Food | 379.14 | 391.21 |
| Information & Comm. | 1240.01 | 1308.68 |
| Financial Activities | 1130.07 | 1182.44 |
| Professional Activities | 974.01 | 1039.96 |
| Administrative Activities | 625.61 | 654.7 |
| Public Admin. & Defence | 976.49 | 1010.73 |
| Education | 881.35 | 906.26 |
| Health & Social | 750.94 | 787.82 |
| Arts & Entertainment | 522.72 | 556.47 |
| All sectors | 786.33 | 847.21 |
Average weekly earnings increased by 7.7% to €847.21 in Q4 2020. This represents average earnings of those remaining in employment in the Irish economy in Q4 2020, including those supported by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS).
Average weekly earnings of the main economic sectors in Q4 2020 ranged from a high of €1,308.68 in the Information and communication sector to a low of €391.21 in the Accommodation and food service activities sector.
Link to release: Earnings and Labour Costs
| Change in earnings Q120 - Q220 | Change in earnings Q220 - Q320 | Change in earnings Q320 - Q420 | |
| Industry | -4.8434535580562 | -4.19119353545583 | 10.8080730227591 |
| Construction | -6.33829915892474 | 9.29539852095316 | 10.2460832091506 |
| Wholesale & retail | 1.08450680358565 | 0.204516118217035 | 7.45629443747386 |
| Transportation | -1.55255557443251 | -0.0132747474479222 | 8.68814805963807 |
| Accommodation & food | 17.687074829932 | -6.1708413615928 | 0.213564055526638 |
| Information & communication | -4.1908064735482 | 0.832523048751921 | 5.73590483564441 |
| Financial & real estate | -6.08290826653711 | -7.70795796443012 | 11.0353459871469 |
| Professional & technical | -2.71080724481229 | -2.86545021164675 | 25.7861502173614 |
| Admin & support service | -6.44995219533721 | -0.166666666666659 | 5.41783475603994 |
| Public admin & defence | 4.42129349512108 | -1.33059418457648 | 3.50641169373351 |
| Education | 4.75109518120271 | 1.84643069865287 | 0.792623746360399 |
| Health & social | 0.449858121669311 | 0.700013779798803 | 1.94176085826105 |
| Arts & entertainment | 15.5396026719875 | -12.3251928744392 | 13.347035776222 |
| All sectors | 3.18345830027893 | -4.0090771558245 | 8.07012104535647 |
Between Q3 and Q4, average weekly earnings increased by 8.1% across all employments. Average weekly earnings increased in all 13 of the economic sectors between Q3 and Q4. The largest rate of increase was recorded in the Professional, scientific & technical activities sector (25.8%). The smallest rate of increase was seen in the Accommodation and food services sector at 0.2%.
Link to bulletin: Labour Market Insight Bulletin
| Percentage of employments that were directly supported by the EWSS | EWSS subsidy payments as % of total earnings | |
| Industry | 10.25 | 2.52362051479271 |
| Construction | 20.57 | 6.27135066576204 |
| Wholesale & retail | 13.92 | 4.64268430411793 |
| Transportation | 34.9 | 13.1141165374835 |
| Accommodation & food | 72.45 | 44.7480428096574 |
| Information & communication | 6.58 | 1.16033975879467 |
| Financial & real estate | 8.2 | 1.77836763886071 |
| Professional & technical | 12.96 | 3.04190720307753 |
| Admin & support service | 15.51 | 5.7224748334092 |
| Public admin & defence | 0.34 | 0.0761453184810462 |
| Education | 5.82 | 1.82374614886816 |
| Health & social | 7.47 | 2.57188254518815 |
| Arts & entertainment | 42.85 | 17.6531537516098 |
| All sectors | 16.45 | 4.31682584388391 |
In Q4 2020, 16.5% of active employments were directly supported by the EWSS. The sectors with the highest proportion of employments supported by the EWSS were Accommodation & food services (72.5%), Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities (42.9%) and Transportation & storage (34.9%).
In terms of earnings, EWSS payments accounted for 4.3% of total earnings across all sectors in Q4 2020. Again, this varied by sector; in the Accommodation & food services sector EWSS payments represented 44.7% of total earnings, while in the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector, the Transportation & storage sector and the Construction sector the proportions were 17.7%, 13.1% and 6.3% respectively.
Link to bulletin: Labour Market Insight Bulletin
| Change in earnings Q120 - Q220 | Change in earnings Q220 - Q320 | Change in earnings Q320 - Q420 | |
| Industry | -5.2 | 0.3 | 12.1 |
| Construction | -11.1 | 14.5 | 9.2 |
| Wholesale & retail | -4.9 | 4.5 | 12.4 |
| Transportation | -6.2 | 7.6 | 15.5 |
| Accommodation & food | -9.4 | 9.5 | 2.4 |
| Information & communication | -3.6 | 6.8 | 8 |
| Financial & real estate | -9.2 | -2.9 | 14.5 |
| Professional & technical | -6.8 | 1.9 | 24.5 |
| Admin & support service | -14.8 | 2.3 | 10.9 |
| Public admin & defence | 1.7 | -0.6 | 5.2 |
| Education | -0.6 | -0.8 | 7.5 |
| Health & social | -0.9 | 1.6 | 4.6 |
| Arts & entertainment | -9.8 | 3.1 | 11.1 |
| All sectors | -5 | 2.4 | 10.5 |
To provide further context, and taking into consideration the compositional effect mentioned above, we have also prepared analysis of earnings for employments that were active in more than one quarter. For each set of quarters being analysed, a matched dataset was created of all employments that were active in both quarters i.e.;
For employments that were active in both Q3 and Q4, average weekly earnings increased by 10.5%. Average weekly earnings increased in all 13 economic sectors between Q3 and Q4. The largest rates of increase were recorded in the Professional, scientific & technical activities sector (24.5%) and the Transportation & storage sector (15.5%).
Please note that the Labour Force Survey (LFS) is the official source of employment in the CSO.
Link to bulletin: Labour Market Insight Bulletin
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