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Posted on by Jane Morgan

Sources of Irish Salary Information

Solid factual information provides a realistic understanding of what salary to expect and ask for. This resource lists reliable salary information for the Irish market to help you prepare for salary negotiation.

Irish National Government Salary Data Sources

In 2020, the average (mean) weekly earnings across all sectors was €801, up from €784 in Q4 2019. The chart shows a clear difference in pay between men and women with men over a 100 euros more than the average and women over 100 euros below. This gives us a rough gap of 200 euros.

Mean weekly earnings in euros for women, men and combined in Ireland from 2011 through 2021.

With 52 weeks in a year, this amounts to an annual Irish salary of €41652, versus €40,748 in 2019. Hiring is continuing in many sectors despite the pandemic.

The figure below (CSO.ie) shows average wages / salaries for various sectors and organizational sizes in 2019. (The Irish salary information you’ll find here becomes more detailed as we move down through the information sources.)

Irish wages and salaries for industry, construction, distribution, services and combined total business economy sector and organizational size in 2019.
Salaries in Business Economy by Central Statistics Office Ireland, 2019

Irish Industry-Specific Salary Information

The national Central Statistics Office (CSO) of Ireland data, shows us that a significant factor in earnings is industry sector. Locate your sector here, noting the change overtime from 2014 as the line moves towards Q4 2019 (towards the right).

CSO Earning Per Week by Sector 2020

CSO Earning By Sector By Employer Size

Professional Bodies – Irish Salary Information by Industry Sector

Source: Engineers Ireland membership, January 2020, n=1,692

Irish Earnings By Gender

CSO Earnings by Region For Women

Data Source https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/earnings/

Income is broken out across ‘income bands’. For example in 2011, the average income for men was €33,364, and for women €24,515. These graphs show the number of women who earn within each pay band. 249 thousand women earned between €10,000 and €19,000. By contrast 225 thousand men earned over €50,000.

This information shows that it is particularly important for women to compare themselves not only to female professional peers but also to their male colleagues.

Irish Income by Income Band Women 2011
Irish Income by Income Band Men 2011

As we see above the best paid sector in Ireland’s continues to be the information and communication sector. In this industry, men (purple) made up almost 70% of people employed (CSO, 2019). Similar every Irish economic sector has a gender pay gap as outlined above. There’s more on the trajectory of Ireland’s Gender Pay Gap in the private sector here.

There continues to be a gender pay gap not just in technology but in each of these sectors as shown below. This is not an individual problem, its a systemic problem.

Source: Eurostat GPG by Sector NACE Rev. 2

Private Sector Irish Industry Salary Surveys

A key information source is to seek out leading industry groups in your sector. Membership may be required to access all resources.

Irish Recruiter Salary Guides

Companies say that 48% of applicants have unrealistic expectations around salary. (Hays, 2019). But what is realistic?

Online Salary Indices Ireland

Market Alignment – Open Positions Ireland

Whether or not you are considering a move away from your current employer, considering open positions means you have ‘bench-marked’ your salary, or target salary, in line with current market expectations.

Further Resources To Learn About Salary