Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources 2023

Distribution by Percentile

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. In such cases median earnings (the middle earner in the economy or sector) may be a more reflective figure of the average earnings of employees in the economy or sector.

Figure 2.1 below shows the weekly earnings at each percentile on the earnings distribution for 2023. It also highlights the mean and median earnings for that year.

In 2023, the median weekly earnings were €699.28 (half of all jobs earned more than this amount and half earned less), while mean weekly earnings stood at €895.51. Figure 2.1 below illustrates that almost two-thirds of employments earned less than the mean in 2023.

Distribution by Sex

Figure 2.2 presents the distribution of employments by weekly earnings and sex. It shows a greater proportion of female employments at the lower end of the distribution compared with their male counterparts.

Almost one-third of employments held by females (32.1%) earned less than €450 per week, while less than one-fifth of male employments (19.4%) had similar weekly earnings.

Distribution by Age Group

Figure 2.3 presents the distribution of employments by weekly earnings and age group. The 15-24 years age group had the highest proportion of employments at the lower end of the distribution. The majority of employments (64.5%) among this age group earned less than €450 per week.

With increased age, the distribution of earnings levelled out, meaning a greater proportion of employments were at the upper end of the distribution. This trend continued up to the 50-59 years age group, where there was a small reversal of the trend, while for the 60 years and over age group there was more significant movement in the proportion of employments at the lower end of the distribution.

Distribution by Decile

Table 2.1 below outlines the earnings by decile (every 10^th percentile) in each of the years 2016 to 2023, while Figure 2.4 and Table 2.2 present the percentage change in earnings (year-on-year) at every 10^th percentile.

Between 2022 and 2023 there were increases across each decile. The largest increase in weekly earnings was recorded for the 10^th percentile which rose by 7.4% in 2023. When considering these results, it should be taken into account that the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions applied in response to it had a significant impact on the labour market across 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Distribution by Economic Sector

Figure 2.5 below shows that more than one-fifth (21.7%) of all employments earned less than €400 per week in 2023. Employments earning between €400 and €800 per week accounted for 36.4% of all employments. Almost one-third (30.9%) of employments had weekly earnings between €800 and €1,600, while a further 11.0% of employments earned €1,600 or more per week.

The economic sector with the highest proportion of employments earning less than €400 per week was Accommodation & Food (55.2%), followed by Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services at 46.6%. In contrast, the Information & Communication sector had the highest proportion of employments earning €1,600 or more per week (40.4%).

Distribution by Economic Sector and Decile

Table 2.4 below presents the proportion of employments for each main economic sector by decile for the year 2023. The deciles are calculated based on the earnings of all employments.

Similar to 2022, the sectors with the highest proportion of employments whose earnings were in the bottom decile of earnings were Accommodation & Food (30.4%) and Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services (24.4%). At the other end of the earnings distribution, the sectors with the highest proportion of employments whose earnings were in the top decile of earnings were Information & Communication (38.2%) and Financial, Insurance & Real Estate (23.1%).