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CSO statistical release, , 11am

QNHS - National Minimum Wage Estimates

Quarter 2 - Quarter 4 2016

IndicatorQ2 2016Q3 2016Q4 2016Average Q2 to Q4 2016
Employees reporting earning National Minimum Wage or less ('000)173.2157.6134.5155.1
Employees reporting earning more than National Minimum Wage ('000)1,341.01,376.01,423.51,380.2
Not stated ('000)154.8164.8156.1158.6
Total ('000)1,669.01,698.31,714.11,693.8
Proportion of employees reporting earning National Minimum Wage or less (%)111.410.38.610.1
1 Note: Denominator excludes employees whose National Minimum Wage status was Not stated

Average of 10.1% of employees for whom earnings data was reported, earned National Minimum Wage or less between Q2 and Q4 2016

Figure 1 Share of employees by NMW status (excluding not stated) - average Q2 to Q4 16
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Over the three quarters between Q2 and Q4 2016, an average of 10.1% of employees for whom earnings data was reported, earned the National Minimum Wage (NMW) or less. The proportion who reported earning more than the NMW was 89.9%.

In absolute terms, the average number of employees who self-reported earning less than the NMW was 22,500 while 132,600 self-reported earnings equal to the NMW. In total therefore, an average of 155,100 employees self-reported that they earned the NMW or less in the period. See Table 1a.

Of the average 22,500 employees who reported earning less than the NMW, 5,700 reported that the reason they earned less than the NMW was related to being a special training rate, while 5,800 reported that it was an age-related rate. See Table 2a.

This release presents results based on questions relating to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) included in the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) in Quarters 2, 3 and 4 2016. The QNHS is not designed to be an earnings survey; rather it is the official Labour Force Survey (LFS) in Ireland and is conducted across a representative sample of households throughout the country. Therefore the earnings data in this release is based on each respondent self-reporting their income and as a result some caution is urged in the interpretation of this data. In addition, as the data presented in the release is collected directly from individual respondents, caution is urged in comparing these results to data collected directly from business enterprises.

In addition, as a number of respondents did not report their status with regard to the NMW, these respondents are identified as ‘Not stated’ in the relevant data tables and are excluded from the denominator in calculating the share or proportion of all respondents on the NMW. 

The questions upon which these results are based were added to the QNHS in Q2 2016. Therefore data is currently available for Quarters 2 to 4 2016 only and as a result it is neither possible to calculate annual changes nor identify seasonal patterns. The results presented throughout this release are therefore based on the average results over the three quarters.

 

Females more likely than males to earn NMW or less

The average results for the period show that females are more likely to earn the NMW or less. Of the 155,100 employees who reported earning the NMW or less, 84,400 or 54.4% were female while 70,700 or 45.6% were male. This compares to the overall split of all employees in the State being 49.4% male and 50.6% female. In total, 9.3% of all male employees in the State earned the NMW or less and the corresponding figure for females was 10.9%. See Table 3a and 3b.

NMW or less predominant in Services Sector

Overall, the Services sector accounted for more than four out of five (81.7%) of all the employees who reported earning the NMW or less. Specifically, the Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector accounted for 25.9% of all employees who reported earning the NMW or less while the Accommodation and food services sector accounted for 24.7%. By comparison, the Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector accounted for 14.3% of all employees in the State while the Accommodation and food services sector accounted for 7.6%. See Table 4b and figure 2.