This chapter explores average salaries and income disparities, including sex, employment and educational differences. GUI survey data have been augmented here with income related and education related administrative data from the 2022 calendar year, and with pension related administrative data from the 2023 calendar. Some of the main results here were:
Work income data was derived from administrative data and included only income from employment as an employee and was calculated for the complete tax year in 2022. This calculation does not include any other form of income such as from self-employment. Average income is presented as the median weekly income as the use of the median removes the distorting effects of very high or very low incomes. Presenting weekly income also controls for differences in annual earnings between those who may have been on the same salary but had different employment start dates across the relevant year. See Background Notes for further information on how median weekly income was calculated. All figures have been rounded to the nearest euro.
In 2022, when this cohort was 24 years old, 85.5% of respondents had a recorded income as an employee (See Figure 2.1). The median weekly income corresponding to the primary employment was €558. Over two-thirds of respondents (68.8%) had held their primary job for at least 24 weeks in 2022 while over one-third (36.6%) had held that job for at least 50 weeks in that year. Rates of having a recorded income as an employee in 2022 did not differ between men (84.2%) and women (86.9%).
The size of the median weekly income from employment differed by sex and educational qualifications. Men had a median weekly income of €589 and women earned a median weekly income of €525 – a difference of €64.
Those with an NFQ Level 7 or higher qualification, equivalent to a degree, had a median weekly income of €613 while those without such a qualification earned a median weekly income of €485 per week, a difference of €128 per week. This pattern was larger for women compared with men. Women without an NFQ Level 7 or higher qualification earned €154 per week less than women with such a qualification (See Figure 2.1). Men without an NFQ Level 7 or higher qualification earned €79 per week less than men with this qualification level.
The annual income distribution calculation in this section included not just income from being an employee but also included income from transfers such as social welfare payments, student grants, and from self-employment. Income of this type of any duration within 2022 was included. Income from within family transfers and other forms of external support was not included here, nor was any income a respondent may have earned abroad. As such the annual data in Figure 2.1 is not directly comparable to the weekly data presented in Figure 2.2.
To illustrate the income distribution, respondents with income as specified above in 2022 have been divided into fifths (quintiles) based on their total gross income (See Figure 2.2). Annual income data was available for 95.7% of respondents with the remaining 4.3% of respondents not having an administrative data record of income in 2022. Average annual income is presented as the annual mean income for the top ten earners in each quintile to avoid statistical disclosure of respondents’ earnings. The figures therefore reflect the upper bound of each quintile. The annual average income distribution ranged from €13,821.04 as the upper bound of the first quintile to €98,659.28 as the upper bound of the fifth quintile.
Rates of having achieved an NFQ Level 7 or equivalent qualification (degree) increased through the income quintiles with a notable difference between the lower 60% and higher 40% of earners in 2022 (See Table 2.1). In the first, second, and third income quintiles in 2022, approximately half of these respondents said they had a degree or equivalent at the time of the survey (51.3%, 50.3%, and 53.1%, respectively). In the fourth income quintile of 2022, over three in five of those respondents (61.9%) said at the time of the survey they had a degree or equivalent. This rose to 79% of survey respondents in the top income quintile in 2022.
There were more men than women in the lowest income quintile, as well as more men than women in the top two income quintiles, in 2022. There were more women than men in the middle income range, the second and third income quintiles, in 2022 (See Table 2.1).
Respondents were asked how easy they found making ends meet. Nearly two-thirds (65.8%) of respondents stated they found it very easy to fairly easy to make ends meet (See Figure 2.3). The remaining 34.2% of this group of 25-year-olds reported having some degree of difficulty in covering basic living expenses. One in five (20.2%) respondents said they made ends meet with some difficulty. Just under one in ten respondents (8.8%) said they made ends meet with difficulty, while just over one in twenty respondents (5.3%) had great difficulty or found it impossible to make ends meet. This can be contrasted with the less than one in ten respondents who reported making ends meet with difficulty or with great difficulty when they were aged 20.
Principal economic status was a factor in distinguishing between those who did or did not find it easy to make ends meet (See Figure 2.3). For those whose principal economic status was not in work at the time of the survey (respondents either unemployed; in higher or further education; or not in employment, education, or training), over half (54.7%) reported at least some difficulty in making ends meet. Three in twenty (15.5%) of these respondents reported making ends meet with great difficulty. In contrast, of those whose principal economic status was employed at the time of the survey, around three in ten (29.7%) reported some degree of difficulty in making ends meet, and just 3% said they were making ends meet with great difficulty.
More than two in five (42.5%) women stated they had some difficulty in or were incapable of making ends meet. This compared with 25.6% of men who reported the same levels of difficulty (see Table 2.2).
Living in or outside the family home had a small effect on the levels of ease or difficulty reported in making ends meet, with 12.8% of those who lived in their parental home reporting they found it difficult to or were incapable of making ends meet compared with 17.0% of those who lived outside the parental home (See Table 2.2).
Respondents were also asked if they had skipped a meal or cut the size of their meal in the past year because they could not afford to buy food (See Table 2.3). One in four women (24.5%) reported skipping meals due to such financial concerns compared with one in seven men (14.5%). Again, principal economic status was a factor here: for those who were not in work, three in ten (29.8%) respondents stated they had skipped meals for financial reasons compared with 17.3% of respondents who were employed at the time of the survey.
According to the Retirement Planning Council of Ireland, planning for retirement should begin in a person’s 20s. Nearly three-quarters of the respondents (73.2%) reported saving regularly (See Figure 2.4). Men (76.9%) were saving more regularly compared with women (69.6%). Of those in the highest income quintile in 2022, nearly seven-eighths of respondents (86.5%) said they saved regularly. Of those in the lowest income quintile in 2022, two-thirds (66.7%) said they saved regularly.
Overall, 44.3% were contributing towards a pension in 2023 (See Table 2.4). This figure was calculated both from survey and administrative data. There was very little distinction between rates of men and women contributing towards a pension. Income quintile distinguished between those who were and were not saving for a pension. Of those in the lowest income quintile in 2022, two in ten (21.8%) were contributing towards a pension in 2023 compared with over eight in ten (85.3%) of those in the highest income quintile.
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