Average weekly earnings rose by 4.1% in 2022

The average weekly earnings of employees in Ireland rose by 4.1 per cent last year, with the country’s median weekly pay now at €670.90, according to latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Weekly earnings rose across all economic sectors, with the biggest increase among those working in the information and communication sector (up 10.2 per cent), followed by the transportation and storage sector (up 6.4 per cent).

The highest-paid employees last year were in the information and communication sector, with median weekly earnings of €1,272.45, followed by the financial, insurance and real estate sector where weekly median earnings were €942.45.

Meanwhile, the sector with the lowest median weekly earnings was accommodation and food services, at €348.84.

‘I lost €1,000 in cash on the way to the bank to lodge it. Someone in Dún Laoghaire had a big win that day’

---

Domestic violence is a workplace issue

---

Three big international headwinds that could derail Ireland

---

Knives out in the world of show jumping

---

In the five years from 2017 to 2022, median weekly earnings have risen by 20.5 per cent. However, just under a quarter (23.1 per cent) of all employees still earned less than €400 per week in 2022.

Meanwhile, 37.5 per cent of employments earned €400-€800 per week, some 39.4 per cent earned more than €800 per week, and just 9.8 per cent of people earned at least €1,600 per week.

The cost of climate change: ‘almost like driving another budget through public finances’

Listen | 38:51

The CSO noted that median earnings (the middle earner in the economy or sector) may be more reflective of the average earnings of employees than mean earnings.

Mean weekly earnings in 2022 were €856.21, as almost 65 per cent of employees earned less than this last year.

“As is typical in earnings distributions, a relatively small number of high earners result in a positively skewed earnings distribution of employees in Ireland. In a positively skewed earnings distribution, mean earnings are greater than median earnings as the mean is increased by those higher earners,” said Eimear Heffernan, statistician in the earnings analysis division of the CSO.

Median weekly earnings for males last year were €741.86, compared with €592.92 for females.

Those aged 40-49 years were the age group with the highest median weekly earnings in 2022, at €819.75, while the lowest median weekly earnings were recorded for the 15-24 years age group, at €339.28.

Earnings in Dublin were 12.8 per cent higher than the national average, as median weekly earnings in the capital reached €757.03 last year. This was also 40.2 per cent higher than Donegal, which at €540 had the lowest median weekly earnings of any county.

[ Living wage should rise to €14.80 an hour, says lobby group for unions and charities ]

Median weekly earnings in the public sector stood at €930.51 in 2022, up 3.3 per cent on 2021. In the private sector median weekly earnings were €601.47 in 2022, an increase of 4.3 per cent from 2021.

Of employments that were active in October 2021 and October 2022, median weekly earnings rose by 7.7 per cent.

The CSO noted that the earnings in its analysis include pandemic wage subsidy schemes such as the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) and the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS).

Of employments that were active in October 2022, 8.8 per cent were supported by the EWSS at some point during that year, compared with 20 per cent in 2021. Wage subsidy scheme payments accounted for 0.6 per cent of total earnings across all employments in 2022.