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THE AVERAGE INDUSTRIAL WAGE fell by 3.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2012, new figures have shown.
Data published by the Central Statistics Office shows that the average person working in the industrial sector saw their weekly pay fall to €803.98 before tax, or a gross annual salary of €41,806.96.
That’s down from €43,221.36 in the first quarter, but up very slightly from the same period of last year when the annual salary stood at €41,771.08.
Across all sectors, and not just industry, the average wage fell by just under €8 a week – from €36,179.00 in the first quarter to €35,767.68 in the last figures, a drop of 1.1 per cent.
Other sectors, however, saw more profound variations in their pay levels. Workers in the information and communication sector saw wages fall by 7.7 per cent in the first quarter alone – though, at €962.06 a week, they are still up by 2.6 per cent on the same time last year.
Similarly, professional and scientific work saw pay fall by 6.5 per cent in the last three months, but it’s up by 5.9 per cent when compared to this point last year. The average weekly wage there is €801.19.
At the other end of the scale, pay in the accommodation and food services sector rose by 4.4 per cent – but not only does that sector still rank at the bottom of the chart in terms of pay levels, at €310.40 a week, but it has also seen pay fall by 5.7 per cent in a year.
The fall in ICT wages mean that those in the financial sector are once again the highest earners, at €983.24 a week – down by 3.8 per cent in the last three months, but up by 1.3 per cent since last year.
The average weekly pay packet in the private sector is now €611.66 – down by 1.9 per cent in the last three months – while public sector workers have seen average pay rise by 0.3 per cent to €918.99.
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Seems like I have a way to go before I’m considered average! An awful long way!
Ha, was just thinking the same.
Bill Gates serving food at the homeless shelter kitchen. On average everyone in the Room is a billionaire.
That “public service average” is exceptionally misleading. I can only dream of €900pw!
I work a 40 hour week & also work my lunch hour Mon to Thurs. For this I take home €376 after tax. My take home pay for the equivalent in 2005 was €411. Kind of says it all really.
I’m sure Richard Bruton will do her best to portray his government as just an Average guy. But I don’t think the Blueshirts have any understanding of how the average Irish lives,When you make €1,500 per hour like the Taoiseach you don’t drive around looking for cheap gas, you don’t pick a lower cheaper cut of meat, you don’t keep driving the old car because you can’t afford a new one. When you earn €1,500 per hour you don’t have to go through to process of qualifying for a car loan. When you lose your laptop.you just call your assistant for a new one. Most Irish have to work a week to save enough to buy an new iphone. For the Blueshirts it takes just 4 minutes .I understand why FG favors lower taxes for the rich. I would too if I were rich. That’s only natural. Problem is , they think everyone lives like they do. They can’t imagine what it must be like to have to choose between paying the electric bill or the water bill first, or not having enough money to buy health insurance, or sending your kid to community college because you can’t afford a school. Enda Kenny recently boasted that his secretary’s allowance is €24,427 a year. I think It was a poor attempt to make them sound like “average worker”. I know if I made €1,500 an hour I’d have a personal shopper buy all my clothes. That’s because it would make more sense to work an hour and make €1,500 rather than spend an hour shopping at Primark to save a few euros. I’m sure the Blueshirts have done that math
Tim – Not to detract from your overall sentiment, but your figure for Enda Kenny’s hourly wage is off. At an annual salary of €200,000, and an average working week of 60 hours (I’ve got his diaries for 2011, and 60 hours would be a fair average) his gross hourly wage is €64.10.
That is, of course, way higher than the average punter – but not exactly €1,500 an hour.
60 hours????? does that include trips to the dail bar & photoshoots with just about anyone who can get his mug in the papers. I find it incredulous to believe this so called leader of our country does anywhere near even 40 hours real work a week.
Mr. Reilly,
Enda doesn’t work 60 hours. He works less than half that, according to his secretary.
Tim, with respect: I’ve got his diary right here on my desk. He does 7:30am to 7:30pm most days – some days finishing earlier, some later. Occasionally he’ll do a half-day – presumably to travel to and from Mayo – but more often than not it’s made up by something at a weekend.
Of course, this is all predicated on what you consider to be ‘work’ – but he certainly has appointments from early til late. Honestly, I have no reason to try and mislead you: 60 is a fair estimate.
Anyway, to come up with your €1,500-an-hour figure, he’d need to work 133.3 hours a year, which works out at less than three hours a week.
Gavin, my diary says I work 25 hours a day, it’s ok though as I get expenses and a driver. It’s good being a rock star!!
“I’ve got his diary right here on my desk.”
Well that’s not going to help him. He’ll get nothing done today.
Gavan, with all due respect, I have made quite a number of comments explaining that the Taoiseachs overall gross income from the taxp=payers in this country is 500k per year, not the 200k per year you are suggesting.
I know you are going to quibble about the salary versus income terminilogy, but it does not detract from the fact that the Taoieach Enda Kenny gets the equivalent of 500k per year between ‘salary, allowances, pension rights etc’.
So, its more like 140 euro per hour.
I hope you take this comment in the spirit of clarity that it was meant.
Cal – I do. I still can’t envisage it being as high as â¬500,000, but I do see where you’re coming from.
Average wage calculations are always fallacious for the simple reason it only takes one or two people paying themselves an obscene amount of money per organisation to artificially skew the average up. The median wage is what I want to see – and I’d be willing to bet a reasonable amount it would be a damn sight lower than the figures quoted above!
Very true but then again 50% of statisticians qualified in the bottom half of their class.
This article is absolute nonsense. In fact it is so ridiculous it does not merit further comment.
With precursory apologies for having to ask for further comment… how so?
Try to understand the distortion that can be created by ‘mean’ and ‘average’. The wages of public sector workers has decreased and no amount of misrepresenting increments as wage increases can justify any assertion to the contrary.
The emotion in Patrick Lyon’s suggests rational analysis is beyond comprehension. If only we all got pay rises (increments) for just showing up at work!
Increments ARE wage increases.
You get 5 people working in a small company. One person is on €200k, the other 4 are on €40k each. That makes their average earnings €80k. The figures are correct, but they’re not an accurate reflection of the reality.
The public service “average” includes a consultant on €250k per year and a clerical officer on one tenth of that.
Yes!!! Increments ARE pay increases. Why do some people think they’re not? Weird isn’t it.
An increment is an increase in wages you get for having stayed another year in a job you can’t be sacked from. Well done Patrick… I’m sure you deserve it.
They should look at the median wage and not average, as the average is it’s too easily distorted by extremely high earners.
I think regardless of the faults in using these measures, it does suggest (as I had always suspected) that a lot of “average” people in this country are getting paid a lot more than they’re letting on.
Ha-hah, well said Sarah, was thinking along the same lines while reading the article.
I get just under ?18k pre tax pa. I wish I was average :-(
Not trying to be hurtful but the way I see it is that if you’re on the minimum wage it’s only down to you. I started on minimum wage when I dropped out of school and have done courses, an apprenticship and finally college. To quote my father “you don’t get anything unless you work for it” and I think it completely true.
Salaries in the UK are much lower than that again, especially for Professionals in any industry outside of law and finance. Don’t have the exact figures on me though. Bottom line seems to be, if you are one of the lucky ones to have a job in Ireland then chances are your pay packet is better than quite a few other countries.
I have a graduate engineer job in England and it pay about the same when you convert the money. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper too!
The cost of living in the UK, especially outside of London is much much much cheaper than any part of Ireland.
There are many countries that have a higher net income than Irish people, Denmark, Finland, Holland, Lux. Austria for starters, all bailing us out.
Wages in Mexico are lower too. We’re in Ireland, wake up!
I can dream of an average wage!
Average Industrial wage in the UK £25K/ €31K, Average wage across all sectors £19K/ €24K. Minimum wage in the UK £6.08/ €7.60 for workers aged 21 and over, £4.98 / €6.30 – the 18-20 rate.
Average Industrial wage in Ireland €41,806.96, Average wage across all sectors €35,767.68, Minimun wage in Ireland €8.65.
That is a huge difference, im not surprised it is hard to attract new companies to Ireland, looking at the pay scale.
The truth some people don’t want top hear but have nothing to say…. typical……..Something has to change for things to get better for all.
Gavan, I find your report unusually. Where did you get such this information?
Apologies – I left out the usual hyperlink in the second paragraph. It’s been included now.
Does this figure say anything? It seems to me one of those senseless statistics that revokes a lot of emotive reaction, but without any details it’s meaningless.
EEC rule means slave labour and no unions.
have your say