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Earnings

€847.21
Average weekly earnings in Q4 2020

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.

Technical Note – Impact of COVID-19 on the Earnings and Labour Costs release - updated Quarter 4 2020

Open in Excel:
Average Weekly Earnings Q4 2019Average Weekly Earnings Q4 2020
Industry915969.8
Construction841.01888.54
Wholesale & Retail602.86635.24
Transportation827.71799.32
Accommodation & Food379.14391.21
Information & Comm.1240.011308.68
Financial Activities1130.071182.44
Professional Activities974.011039.96
Administrative Activities625.61654.7
Public Admin. & Defence976.491010.73
Education881.35906.26
Health & Social750.94787.82
Arts & Entertainment522.72556.47
All sectors786.33847.21
Table 21.1 Average earnings and hours worked by economic sector, Q4 2019 - Q4 2020

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.

View Table EHQ03 on PxStat

Link to release: Earnings and Labour Costs

Open in Excel:
Change in earnings Q120 - Q220Change in earnings Q220 - Q320Change in earnings Q320 - Q420
Industry-4.8434535580562-4.1911935354558310.8080730227591
Construction-6.338299158924749.2953985209531610.2460832091506
Wholesale & retail1.084506803585650.2045161182170357.45629443747386
Transportation-1.55255557443251-0.01327474744792228.68814805963807
Accommodation & food17.687074829932-6.17084136159280.213564055526638
Information & communication-4.19080647354820.8325230487519215.73590483564441
Financial & real estate-6.08290826653711-7.7079579644301211.0353459871469
Professional & technical-2.71080724481229-2.8654502116467525.7861502173614
Admin & support service-6.44995219533721-0.1666666666666595.41783475603994
Public admin & defence4.42129349512108-1.330594184576483.50641169373351
Education4.751095181202711.846430698652870.792623746360399
Health & social0.4498581216693110.7000137797988031.94176085826105
Arts & entertainment15.5396026719875-12.325192874439213.347035776222
All sectors3.18345830027893-4.00907715582458.07012104535647
Table 21.2 Percentage change in earnings by sector and quarter

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

Open in Excel:
Percentage of employments that were directly supported by the EWSSEWSS subsidy payments as % of total earnings
Industry10.252.52362051479271
Construction20.576.27135066576204
Wholesale & retail13.924.64268430411793
Transportation34.913.1141165374835
Accommodation & food72.4544.7480428096574
Information & communication6.581.16033975879467
Financial & real estate8.21.77836763886071
Professional & technical12.963.04190720307753
Admin & support service15.515.7224748334092
Public admin & defence0.340.0761453184810462
Education5.821.82374614886816
Health & social7.472.57188254518815
Arts & entertainment42.8517.6531537516098
All sectors16.454.31682584388391
Table 21.3 Percentage of employments and total earnings supported by EWSS, Q4 2020

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

Open in Excel:
Change in earnings Q120 - Q220Change in earnings Q220 - Q320Change in earnings Q320 - Q420
Industry-5.20.312.1
Construction-11.114.59.2
Wholesale & retail-4.94.512.4
Transportation-6.27.615.5
Accommodation & food-9.49.52.4
Information & communication-3.66.88
Financial & real estate-9.2-2.914.5
Professional & technical-6.81.924.5
Admin & support service-14.82.310.9
Public admin & defence1.7-0.65.2
Education-0.6-0.87.5
Health & social-0.91.64.6
Arts & entertainment-9.83.111.1
All sectors-52.410.5
Table 21.4 Percentage change in earnings by sector and quarter for employments that were active in both quarters

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.;

  • Q1 Vs Q2: employments that were active in both Q1 2020 and Q2 2020
  • Q2 Vs Q3: employments that were active in both Q2 2020 and Q3 2020
  • Q3 Vs Q4: employments that were active in both Q3 2020 and Q4 2020

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

Go to Appendix 1 Methodology

Return to Yearbook Part 2 Overview

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