This release presents statistics on earnings based on administrative data sources. The primary data source is employee tax data from the Revenue Commissioners, which is linked to data from the CSO and other sources to provide demographic breakdowns of earnings.
Revenue's employee tax data contains a complete register of all employments and is the most accurate source of remuneration. It provides details of gross annual earnings and number of weeks worked in the year for all employments. The weekly earnings are calculated by dividing the gross annual earnings, as declared to Revenue, by the number of weeks worked in the year for each employment. For years 2011-2018 the employee tax data used for the EAADS came from employer end of year returns, P35, submitted to Revenue. The P35 was an annual return that was completed by all registered employers after the tax year end, up to 2018. Since 01 January 2019, Revenue has operated real-time reporting of payroll; “PAYE Modernisation" (PMOD). Employers are required to report their employees’ pay and deductions in real-time to Revenue each time they operate payroll. Information is provided to Revenue at individual payslip level. EAADS analysis from 2019 onwards is based on the more detailed employee tax data provided by Revenue’s PMOD system.
The Central Records System of the Department of Social Protection provides information on age, nationality, gender and county of residence. Using a unique identifier (see 'Methodology' below) each employee on the employee tax data files can be linked to their individual demographic characteristics on the Department of Social Protection datasets. Therefore, the earnings dataset is enhanced by adding the demographic details.
Linking the unique enterprise number common to both the Revenue employee tax data files and the CSO’s Business Register allows enterprise level variables to be added to each individual employee. The economic sectors (NACE Rev.2) and the Public/Private sector classifications are harmonised to the Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS).
The linkage and analysis was undertaken by the CSO for statistical purposes in line with the Statistics Act, 1993 and the CSO Data Protocol.
Before using personal administrative data for statistical purposes, the CSO removes all identifying personal information including the Personal Public Service Number (PPSN). The PPSN is a unique number that enables individuals to access social welfare benefits, personal taxation and other public services in Ireland. The CSO converts the PPSN to a Protected Identifier Key (PIK). The PIK is a unique and non-identifiable number which is internal to the CSO. Using the PIK enables the CSO to link and analyse data for statistical purposes, while protecting the security and confidentiality of the individual data. The Revenue, DSP and CSO records were linked using the PIK for this project. All records in the datasets are anonymised and the results are in the form of statistical aggregates which do not identify any individuals.
The publication tables in this release are provided by NACE economic sector, gender, age, nationality and region (residence) and are available on PxStat (CSO Main Data Dissemination Service). Average weekly and annual earnings are provided and the information covers both the public and private sectors.
The Revenue Commissioners also publish data based on the P35 file (up to 2018) on PxStat (CSO Main Data Dissemination Service). This includes mainly PAYE individuals but also includes non-PAYE income and records for married couples. The CSO analysis is for PAYE individuals only.
For the purposes of this analysis the CSO excluded employees earning less than €500 per annum and employments where the duration was less than two weeks in the year. Also excluded were secondary employments earning less than €4,000 per annum, extremely high earnings values and missing employer and employee reference numbers. Employment activity in NACE sectors A, T and U has also been excluded from the analysis.
In line with Eurostat requirements relating to Structure of Earnings Statistics (in particular Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999) the data used for this analysis has been restricted to employments that were active in the month of October.
Up to 2018, employments active in October were identified using employment start and end dates on the P35 data. From 2019, active employments are identified by reference to pay dates in the reference month using data from Revenue's PMOD system.
The effect of this restriction on median weekly earnings is shown in Table 8.1 below, for all employments as well as by economic sector. In 2023 the effect of the restriction is an increase of 5.2% in median weekly earnings. The biggest impact by sector was in Public Administration & Defence (5.3%).
Table 8.2 presents the October only employments as a proportion of all employments available if the restriction was not applied. Again, it is presented for all employments as well as by main economic sector.
Annual earnings represent the total gross annual amount (before deduction of tax, PRSI and superannuation) payable by the enterprise to its employees. This information is obtained from employee tax data provided by the Revenue Commissioners. It includes bonuses and benefit in kind (BIK). It excludes pension payments and severance payments.
Weekly earnings are calculated by dividing the gross annual earnings by the number of weeks worked.
Benefit in kind (BIK) is the notional income calculation of the value of all ‘payments in kind’, made to the employee during the year (for example, the private use of a company car, medical insurance payments paid by the company, company products at reduced prices, housing, etc.). BIK is included in the gross annual earnings of the employee submitted to the Revenue Commissioners by the employer.
The economic sector classification (NACE) is aligned to the CSO’s Business Register. The economic sector classification used for the Business Register is based on the ‘Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE Rev.2)’. The NACE code of each enterprise included in the survey was determined from the predominant activity of the enterprise, based on information provided to the CSO.
| Economic Sector (NACE) Description | |||
| Total | All Sectors | K-L | Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities |
|---|---|---|---|
| B-E | Industry | M | Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities |
| F | Construction | N | Administrative & Support Service Activities |
| G | Wholesale & Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles & Motorcycles | O | Public Administration & Defence; Compulsory Social Security |
| H | Transportation & Storage | P | Education |
| I | Accommodation & Food Service Activities | Q | Human Health & Social Work Activities |
| J | Information & Communication | R-S | Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Service Activities |
The regional classifications in this publication are based on the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units) classification used by Eurostat. Previously the NUTS3 regions corresponded to the eight Regional Authorities established under the Local Government Act, 1991 (Regional Authorities) (Establishment) Order, 1993, which came into operation on 1 January 1994 while the NUTS2 regions, which were proposed by Government and agreed by Eurostat in 1999, were groupings of those historic NUTS3 regions.
However, the NUTS3 boundaries were amended on 21 November 2016 under Regulation (EC) No. 2066/2016. These new groupings are reflected in this publication. As a result of these changes, Louth moved from the Border to the Mid-East and what was formerly South Tipperary was amalgamed with North Tipperary and moved from the South-East to the Mid-West.
NUTS3 Regional Authority Areas: Border, Midland, West, Dublin, Mid-East, Mid-West, South-East and South-West
| NUTS 3 Areas | Counties |
| Border: | Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo |
|---|---|
| Midland: | Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath |
| West: | Galway, Mayo, Roscommon |
| Dublin: | Dublin |
| Mid-East: | Kildare, Meath, Wicklow, Louth |
| Mid-West: | Clare, Limerick, Tipperary |
| South-East: | Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford |
| South-West: | Cork, Kerry |
Public sector data comprises employments in the Civil Service, Defence, An Garda Síochána, Education, Regional bodies, Health and Semi-State, both commercial and non-commercial.
Ireland - Republic of Ireland.
United Kingdom - Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
EU27 excluding Ireland - Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Croatia joined the EU on 1st July 2013 and is included in the category EU27 excluding Ireland for all years.
Other - All other nationalities not listed or included in the above three groupings as well as those who could not be coded.
The main EAADS results included in this publication are based on employments in NACE sectors B-S and do not include employments active in NACE A, T or U. Table 8.4 below shows analysis of employments in NACE A (Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing), prior to them being excluded from the main data.
This analysis is for PAYE individuals only. It does not include any analysis of self-employed income.
Only employments active in October of the reference year are included in this analysis.
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