This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.
Persons employed1 in the pharmaceutical and medical technology sectors stood at 96,848 in 2025, an increase of 60.0% from 60,537 in 2019. The largest growth occurred between 2019 and 2020, with an increase of 18.2% or 10,999.
In 2025, 83,317 persons (86.0%) worked for enterprises whose ultimate owner was located outside of Ireland. As the overall sector has grown, the proportion of people working for foreign owned companies has remained reasonably stable.
The total wage bill for the sectors has increased consistently between 2019 and 2025, from €3.98bn in 2019 to €7.89bn in 2025, almost doubling over the timeframe. In line with the growth of total persons employed, the largest increase in the wage bill occurred between 2019 and 2020, an increase of 18.6% from €3.98bn to €4.72bn.
Enterprises with foreign owners contributed between 85.9% and 87.9% of the sectors’ total wage bill during the timeframe. The wage bill relating to Irish owned enterprises has shown a consistent upward trend, growing by 71.4% over the period, from €0.56bn in 2019 to €0.96bn year-end 2025.
Males have consistently accounted for a greater proportion of the workforce in these sectors, than females. There has been a marginal increase in the female proportion of the workforce, from 41.4% in 2019 to 42.6% in 2025.
Median weekly earnings for the sector were €1,220 in 2025, 23.4% higher than 2019. In 2025 median weekly earnings for males were 21.3% higher than that of females2. Median weekly earnings for females increased by 28.7% over the period whereas median weekly earnings for males increased by 20.2%.
Median annual earnings for the sector were €68,591 in 2025, 22.4% higher than in 2019. In 2025 median annual earnings for males were 20.5% higher than that of females. Median annual earnings for females increased by 27.9% over the period whereas median annual earnings for males increased by 19.9%. The female earnings in 2025 were similar to male earnings in 2019.
1Not all surveyed employees had completed 52 weeks work for a particular year. Due to the inability to distinguish between salary, overtime and bonus, it was deemed inaccurate to annualise these salaries. Instead, the number of full-year equivalents was calculated for the year. See Background Notes for more.
2The difference in earnings by gender have been calculated based on the data available in PMOD. The gender differences are simply the difference in the pay to males and females in the sector but do not account for any difference in hours worked as this data was not available. For specific gender pay gap statistics visit the Structure of Earnings Survey.
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