Median weekly earnings for the general employee population were €711.56 in 2024 while it was €544.09 for the International Protection Applicants (IPA) group in employment.
In 2024, 74.1% of the IPA group in employment were male, while females accounted for 25.9%.
For the IPA group from 2021 to 2024 and in employment in 2024, 63.9% worked in three sectors: Administrative & Support Services (36.2%), Accommodation & Food Services (16.3%), and Wholesale & Retail Trade (11.4%).
In 2024, median weekly earnings for the IPA group working in the top three sectors of employment were €577.49 in Administrative & Support Services, €445.24 in Accommodation & Food Services, and €516.44 in Wholesale & Retail Trade.
The highest median weekly earnings in 2024 for the IPA group by nationality were those from Georgia (€658.60) and Zimbabwe (€566.55).
The statistics in this release are based on work between the Labour Market and Earnings Analysis and Life Events and Demography Divisions of the CSO. The results are based on data linkage between two existing CSO releases, namely Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources and Insights on Applicants of International Protection Using Administrative Data.
There were two primary data sources used in the analysis; the first primary data source was the Revenue Commissioner’s PAYE Modernisation Data Flow of employee tax data, also known as PMOD. This was linked to the CSO Business Register and other data to provide economic and demographic breakdowns of employee earnings in Ireland. PMOD data does not necessarily include those who are self-employed with the exception of those who pay themselves a wage.
The second primary data source used was social welfare data from the Department of Social Protections database from the Business Object Model implementation (BOMi) and Integrated Short-Term Payments System (ISTS). This data source allowed us to identify beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance.
Extensive methodological information is available in the Background Notes of this release.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (13 February 2026) published International Protection Applicants: Employment and Demographic Insights 2022-2024.
Commenting on the release, Darragh Turner, Statistician in the Labour Market and Earnings Analysis Division of the CSO, said: "This release explores the employment outcomes of the group of International Protection Applicants (IPA) from the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) dataset. This dataset is based on the Revenue Commissioner’s PAYE Modernisation (PMOD) employee tax data and does not include self-employed people, except for those who themselves pay a wage. The data was linked to the CSO Business Register and other data to provide economic and demographic breakdowns of employee earnings in Ireland. This dataset differs slightly from the original EAADS release as it does not apply the October restriction where only employments active in October are included so estimates may differ from the original EAADS release (Please see Background Notes for more information).
This dataset is used to analyse employment factors related to the IPA group such as sector of employment, sex, age, country of nationality, and earnings associated with their employment as well as changes in earnings over time. It is important to note that these results focus on the IPA group, who are defined as beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance (DEA) at any point between 2021 and 2024. Income testing is applied by the Department of Social Protection, and the DEA payment is reduced or stopped to take account of income derived from employment, self-employment, or social welfare payments. For the purpose of this analysis, being a past or current member of the IPA group, allows for the identification of the progression of this group into employment and their associated earnings.
This analysis focuses on primary employments, which means if an employee has more than one employment in a given year, the highest paid employment is considered their primary employment. The self-employed are not necessarily included in this analysis with the exception of those who pay themselves a wage.
It should be noted that the waiting period for IPA to enter the labour market was reduced from nine months to six months in 2021. Of all the members of this group whose allowance had a start date in 2021, there were 57.5% in employment in 2022. The proportion of this group with a start date in 2022 that were in employment in 2023 was 66.1%, and for those with a start date in 2023 and employment in 2024 was 59.0%.
Age and Sex
Looking at the composition of age and gender of the IPA group in employment in 2024 we can see that for both males and females the 30-39 years age group had the highest proportion of employments at 36.5% and 34.3%. For females the 40-49 years age group had the next highest proportion of employments at 24.2% whereas for males this was the 25-29 years age group accounting for 23.0% of employments.
The 30-39 years age group had the highest median weekly earnings in 2024 for both sexes at €556.46. Males in the 40-49 years age group had the highest median weekly earnings at €595.56 and females in the 50 years and over age group had the highest median weekly earnings at €490.71.
The 15-24 years age group had the lowest median weekly earnings at €506.53 for both sexes, €439.88 for females, and €531.52 for males. For both sexes the median weekly earnings gap between the highest (30-39 years) and lowest (15-24 years) age group was €49.93, so although we can see that earnings increase with age, the increase was minimal compared with what is seen in the general population (Please see the Earnings Analysis for Administrative Data Sources for more information).
Economic Sector
Overall, we can see that in 2024, there were 63.9% of the IPA group in employment in three sectors. The highest employment was in Administrative & Support Services (36.2%), followed by Accommodation & Food Services (16.3%) and Wholesale & Retail Trade (11.4%). In 2024, 74.1% of those in employment were males while 25.9% of those in employment were females. Of the IPA group in employment in Construction, 94.7% were male, and for the Industry sector, 89.6% were male. Female members of the population had high representation in sectors such as Public Administration, Education & Health (68.8%) and Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities (39.5%).
Focusing on median weekly earnings, members of this group earned €544.09 in 2024, up 8.3% from 2023, and up 15.5% since 2022. In comparison, the general employment population who are all those in employment and not members of the IPA group had median weekly earnings of €711.56 in 2024, up 4.9% from 2023, and up 9.8% since 2022.
The general employment population had higher median weekly earnings in 10 out of the 11 economic sectors, the only exception was in the Accommodation & Food Services sector where the IPA group earned €445.24 compared with the general employment population who earned €391.15 in 2024. We know from the Distribution of Earnings by Nationality release that workers in the Accommodation & Food Services sector tend to be younger and work less hours, particularly so for the general employment population and Irish nationals.
In 2024, the highest paying sectors for the IPA group were Construction (€659.72) and Information & Communication (€599.48), and the lowest paying sector was Arts, Entertainment & Recreation (€424.91). Looking at the sectors where the majority of the IPA group were in employment, we can see median weekly earnings were €577.49 in Administrative & Support Services, €445.24 in Accommodation & Food Services and €516.44 in Wholesale & Retail Trade.
Country of Nationality
Continuing to comment on the release, Cathal Doherty, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography Division of the CSO said: “The country of nationality of the IPA group in employment was also assessed in this release. Median weekly earnings for eight countries of nationality were assessed over time and compared with the general population. The countries include Afghanistan, Algeria, Botswana, Georgia, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. These countries were included as they were deemed to have sufficiently large enough numbers of the IPA group in employment across 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Looking at this group by country of nationality showed that Georgian nationals had the highest median weekly earnings in 2022, 2023, and 2024. In 2024, members of the IPA group who were Georgian nationals had median weekly earnings of €658.60. In fact, not only was Georgia the only country of nationality with median weekly earnings above €600 for the IPA group, but it was also the only country that surpassed this value each year.
Countries with the lowest median weekly earnings for this group in 2024 included Botswana with a median of €527.35, followed closely by Nigeria with a median of €527.93.
Median weekly earnings were also compared between the general population and the IPA group for the eight countries. For three of the countries, there were lower weekly median earnings in the general population. These countries were Afghanistan, Botswana, and Georgia. Three countries also had substantially higher weekly median earnings in the general population, these countries included Nigeria (35% higher), South Africa (64% higher), and Zimbabwe (36% higher)."