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Business In Ireland 2017

Business Costs in Ireland

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This section outlines some of the key statistics from the structural business surveys around the business costs faced by enterprises in Ireland. Personnel costs have been analysed already in other chapters ¹, however, this chapter takes a closer look at the elements that make up personnel costs, which are wages & salaries and employers’ social security costs. The chapter also examines total purchases in the business economy and how purchases are broken down by sector and size class.

¹Small & Medium Enterprises and Business Costs in Ireland.

Personnel costs

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Personnel costs are defined as the total remuneration, in cash or in kind, payable by an employer to an employee. Personnel costs include taxes and employees' social security contributions retained by the unit, as well as the employer's compulsory and voluntary social contributions².

Personnel costs are made up of:

wages and salaries
employers' social security costs

Social security costs for the employer include employer's contributions to the PRSI scheme, superannuation funds, PRSAs and other pension schemes. Also included are insurance premiums, employer’s liability insurance and private health premiums paid on behalf of employees.

² See Appendix 2 for full definition

	Social security costs	Wages & salaries
SMEs (<250)	9.1	90.9
Large (250+)	12.3	87.7
Total Business Economy	10.3	89.7

Wages & salaries accounted for 89.7% of personnel costs for the total business economy in 2017
Large enterprises paid 12.3% of personnel costs in social security compared to 9.1% paid by SMEs
Social security contributions for the total business economy made up 10.3% of personnel costs

	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)	All enterprises
Industry	6.2	15	11.2
Construction	12.1	12.8	12.1
Distribution	9.4	11.3	9.9
Services	9	10.5	9.6
Total Business Economy	9.1	12.3	10.3

For SMEs, social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs ranged from as low as 6.2% in the Industry sector to a high of 12.1% in the Construction sector in 2017
In general, Large enterprises experience higher social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs than SMEs, ranging from 10.5% for the Services sector to a high of 15.0% for Industry

	Social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs
Sweden	30.9
France	29.1
Italy	27.5
Belgium	26.5
Czech Republic	26.1
Estonia	25
Slovakia	24.9
Austria	23.5
Lithuania	22.7
Portugal	22.3
Spain	22.2
Hungary	20.1
Finland	20.1
Greece	19.8
Netherlands	19.3
Romania	18.7
Latvia	18.3
Germany	17.3
Poland	16.7
Bulgaria	14.7
Croatia	14.4
United Kingdom	13.2
Cyprus	13.1
Slovenia	13
Luxembourg	12.7
Ireland	11
Denmark	8.4
Malta	6.6

Ireland had the third lowest social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs in the EU28 for 2016 (11.0%)
Sweden reported the highest rate personnel costs being spent on social security (30.9%)
The United Kingdom had a higher rate than Ireland of social security costs as a percentage of personnel costs (13.2%)

The Services sector accounted for 46.9% of total wages & salaries paid in Ireland's business economy in 2017
Ireland's Industry and Distribution sectors each accounted for approximately one fifth of total wages & salaries paid
The Construction sector's share of total wages & salaries paid in Ireland in 2017 was 10.2%

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Wages and salaries
Industry	22.2
Construction	10.2
Distribution	20.7
Services	46.9

	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)	All enterprises
Industry	41939	52931	47249
Construction	37517	49585	38302
Distribution	28809	29539	29013
Services	27204	42485	31256
Total Business Economy	30512	42392	33903

Persons engaged in the Industrial sector enjoyed the highest sectoral wages in Ireland in 2017 (€47,249 per person)
In contrast, persons engaged in the Distribution sector had the lowest wages (€29,013 per person)
In the total business economy in 2017, persons engaged in SMEs had average wages of €30,512 while those in Large enterprises had average wages of €42,392

The Distribution sector had the largest share of total purchases in the Business Economy in Ireland in 2017 (35.8%)
The Services and Industry sectors accounted for 31.2% and 29.7% of total Business Economy purchases respectively
The smallest sector was the Construction sector with just 3.3% of total purchases in the Irish Business Economy

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Total purchases
Industry	29.7
Construction	3.3
Distribution	35.8
Services	31.2

5.1 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total business economy by sector and size class, 2017

5.2 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total business economy, EU28 countries, 2016

5.3 Purchases in the total business economy by sector and size class, 2017

Go to next chapter >>> Detailed Business Sectors

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Table 5.1 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total business economy¹ by sector and size class, 2017
	Personnel costs	Wages & salaries	Social security costs	Social security costs as a % of personnel costs²	Wages & salaries per person engaged
	€m	€m	€m	%	€uro
Industry	12,929	11,480	1,449	11.2	47,249
SMEs (<250)	5,617	5,267	350	6.2	41,939
Large (250+)	7,312	6,213	1,100	15.0	52,931
Construction	5,982	5,257	725	12.1	38,302
SMEs (<250)	5,474	4,813	660	12.1	37,517
Large (250+)	508	443	65	12.7	49,585
Distribution	11,832	10,660	1,172	9.9	29,013
SMEs (<250)	8,412	7,625	787	9.4	28,809
Large (250+)	3,420	3,034	386	11.3	29,539
Services	26,774	24,210	2,564	9.6	31,256
SMEs (<250)	17,019	15,483	1,536	9.0	27,204
Large (250+)	9,755	8,727	1,028	10.5	42,485
Total Business Economy	57,517	51,607	5,910	10.3	33,903
SMEs (<250)	36,522	33,188	3,333	9.1	30,512
Large (250+)	20,995	18,417	2,579	12.3	42,392
Source: CSO structural business surveys
¹The total business economy includes NACE Rev. 2 Sections B to N (excluding K) and R92, R93, S95 and S96.

Table 5.2 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total business economy¹, EU28 countries, 2016
	Personnel costs	Wages & salaries	Social security costs	Social security costs as a % of personnel costs
	€m	€m	€m	%
European Union (28 countries)	4,174,480	3,303,809	870,528	20.9
Belgium	112,190	82,480	29,710	26.5
Bulgaria	11,947	10,186	1,761	14.7
Czech Republic	47,116	34,830	12,286	26.1
Denmark	82,888	75,907	6,981	8.4
Germany	1,043,183	862,741	180,441	17.3
Estonia	6,507	4,877	1,630	25.0
Ireland	57,410	50,934	6,335	11.0
Greece	28,962	23,239	5,723	19.8
Spain	287,231	223,502	63,729	22.2
France	688,007	487,913	200,094	29.1
Croatia	12,096	10,351	1,745	14.4
Italy	380,894	276,141	104,753	27.5
Cyprus	4,394	3,819	576	13.1
Latvia	5,984	4,892	1,093	18.3
Lithuania	9,248	7,150	2,098	22.7
Luxembourg	13,557	11,842	1,715	12.7
Hungary	29,631	23,662	5,969	20.1
Malta	2,325	2,172	153	6.6
Netherlands	189,247	152,815	36,432	19.3
Austria	114,753	87,844	26,910	23.5
Poland	89,685	74,751	14,934	16.7
Portugal	44,564	34,622	9,942	22.3
Romania	31,943	25,985	5,958	18.7
Slovenia	12,065	10,491	1,574	13.0
Slovakia	18,301	13,736	4,566	24.9
Finland	59,952	47,879	12,073	20.1
Sweden	151,796	104,910	46,885	30.9
United Kingdom	638,601	554,138	84,463	13.2
Source: Eurostat
¹ The total business economy covers NACE Rev. 2 Sections B to N (excluding K) and S95. Note that R92, R93 and S96 are excluded from the sectoral definition of the business economy here as these sectors are not available from Eurostat.

Table 5.3 Purchases in the total business economy¹ by sector and size class, 2017
	Total purchases	Purchases for resale	Purchases for resale as a % of total purchases
	€m	€m	%
Industry	143,882	36,640	25.5
SMEs (<250)	30,952	4,446	14.4
Large (250+)	112,930	32,193	28.5
Construction	16,234	35	0.2
SMEs (<250)	14,627	34	0.2
Large (250+)	1,607	1	0.1
Distribution	173,727	154,429	88.9
SMEs (<250)	150,632	135,674	90.1
Large (250+)	23,095	18,755	81.2
Services	151,422	46,386	30.6
SMEs (<250)	71,572	35,450	49.5
Large (250+)	79,850	10,936	13.7
Total Business Economy	485,265	237,490	48.9
SMEs (<250)	267,783	175,604	65.6
Large (250+)	217,482	61,885	28.5
Source: CSO structural business surveys
¹The total business economy includes NACE Rev. 2 Sections B to N (excluding K) and R92, R93, S95 and S96.

Business In Ireland 2017

Business Costs in Ireland

Business Costs in Ireland

Personnel costs

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