Thursday, November 08, 2012

Irish average earnings fell to €35,905 in 2011

Average annual earnings fell to €35,905 in 2011 from €36,117 in 2010, a decrease of 0.6%. This compares with a revised fall of 1.9% between 2010 and 2009, according to the Central Statistics Office.

Irish Economy: Average annual earnings at €35,905 in 2011

The comment below was made on a thread on the Irish Economy blog:

In 2001 the Exchequer net pay and pensions bill (ex local authorities) was €10.2bn; it was €16.2bn in 2006 (the peak year of the bubble); €17.6bn in 2007; €18.7 in 2008 and is estimated to be €16.9bn in 2012.

These figures are net of pension contributions (normal and emergency).

So to compare with 2007 when it was clear to those of us who weren’t afflicted with Walter Mitty syndrome, that the game was up, there is a saving of €700m. However, we don’t know how much the current cost of the €1.5bn in allowances has risen in the period.

Let’s say €300m. That leaves €400m and then just note that in 2009, the State assumed direct responsibility (a bail-in or bail-out?) for the Trinity College pensions’ deficit of €315m!

The pay and pensions bill takes 42% of net current spending of €40.5bn which has risen by €3.5bn since 2007.

It’s one of several issues of importance in seeking to develop a sustainable economy.

I do cover the others as well!

I have yet to see a justification for the continuation in modern times, of the 1850s era British Empire guarantee of employment.

Irish Economy 2012: Howlin lauds sham cost savings in Croke Park public service agreement

EU-comparison of labour costs and non-wage costs

Among EU Member States, in 2010 the mean (average) gross annual earnings of full-time employees in enterprises employing ten employees or more were highest in Denmark (€58 840), followed by Luxembourg (€49 316), the Netherlands (€45 215), Ireland (€45 207, in 2009), Belgium (€43 423) and Germany (€ 42 400). On the other hand, the lowest mean gross annual earnings were registered in Romania (€5,891) and Bulgaria (€4,396) – see Table 1.

In 2006, median annual earnings showed a broadly similar ranking across the Member States (see Figure 1), with mean earnings higher than median earnings in 2006 for all countries (as very high earners exert a greater influence on the mean than the median). The proportion of employees considered to be low wage earners in 2006 was highest in Latvia, at 30.9 %, while more than one in four employees were also considered as low wage earners in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania

Eurostat: Wages and labour costs