IRISH bank officials are the second worst paid in western Europe, even though they can receive up to £28,000 a year, between basic salary and fringe benefits.
However, they are still better off than British bank officials, who emerge as the worst paid in a Europe wide survey. They get around £23,000 at the top of the scale.
However, Irish officials could quickly move to the bottom of the league because the majority of young recruits are now locked into the new junior bank official grade negotiated a number of years ago. Their starting salary is only £9,600 a year and rises to a maximum of £15,500 to £17,000 depending on the bank.
Even staff on the old salary structures have to wait between 18 and 21 years to reach a salary of £25,000. It is an indication of the age profile that around 50 per cent of Irish bank officials are at the top of the scale.
The Irish Bank Officials' Association (IBOA) is now having to fend off attempts by Irish banks to bring the top salaries here in line with those paid in Britain and Northern Ireland. This week Ulster Bank has written to staff in the Republic telling them what they would earn under a new pay scale it wants to introduce. In many cases the difference is around £6,000 a year.
This is a "notional" pay cut at present, as the bank is in negotiation with the IBOA about proposed salary changes. Under the terms of a plan to discuss pay restructuring, the management and union have agreed that, for the time being, no employee's salary will be cut or frozen. Pay increases due under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work are also being paid.
However, Mr Larry Broderick of the IBOA says: "When management tells people they are being overpaid it does nothing for their morale or commitment". IBOA members have been returning the letters to the company, saying they are not prepared to accept them.
Mr Broderick says that comparisons with pay in the UK is misleading as bank counter staff there are basically cashiers, with none of the extra skills, flexibility and transferability of their Irish counterparts.
The survey of remuneration for bank officials is by Datamonitor: European Banking Database and is contained in the latest issue of the IBOA Newsheet.
"The survey exposes the myth that Irish bank officials are very well paid," says Mr Broderick. "But they have produced huge profits for their employers and this should be in salaries." He hoped that management in Ulster Bank would respond "more positively" in the next phase of talks.
The latest profit figures show that Ulster Bank made £120 million, Bank of Ireland £364 million and AIB £373 million.
The four executive directors of Bank of Ireland recently awarded themselves a remuneration package worth £1.2 million and Ulster Bank's chief executive received a 9 per cent increase this year, well ahead of the PCW, bringing his salary to nearly £187,000.
Meanwhile, Irish bank officials can also cast an envious eye at their colleagues in countries like France, Belgium, Austria, Italy and Germany, where they can receive up to £40,000 a year. Or Switzerland, the bankers' paradise, where remuneration rises to £70,000, albeit that they probably need it to cope with the high cost there.