Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 July 2023
339. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform the first and full-year cost of increasing all wages in the public sector to the governments living wage. [35185/23]
View answerAs agreed by Government, the national living wage will be set at 60% of hourly median wages in line with the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission. It will be introduced over a four-year period and will be in place by 2026, at which point it will replace the National Minimum Wage. The first step towards reaching a living wage was the 80 cent increase to the National Minimum Wage from 1 January 2023 to €11.30 per hour. This will be followed by gradual increases to the National Minimum Wage until it reaches 60% of hourly median earnings. In 2023, it is estimated that 60% of median earnings would equate to approximately €13.10 per hour.
In relation to the civil service, for which my Department holds detailed data, the suggested Living Wage at €13.10 per hour based on the civil service 35 hour standard net working week equates to an annual salary of approximately €23,925. Detailed data on civil service staff indicates that less than 0.1% of staff (FTE) in the civil service are on salary points less than the suggested Living Wage.
Those currently on an annual salary of less than €23,925 may be receiving remuneration in excess of the suggested living wage through additional premium payments in respect of shift work or atypical working hours. In addition, these salary scales progress to the suggested Living Wage and above through normal incremental progression.
The current public service agreement is Building Momentum - A New Public Service Agreement 2021-2023. The pay measures in the extended agreement amount to total headline adjustments of 9.5% over the lifetime of the Agreement. The extended Agreement is weighted towards those at lower incomes headline increases of approximately 12.5% for the lowest paid public servants. This would include all those earning less than €23,925 per annum.
The public service information sought in this request would require detailed data on the position of staff on each salary scale across the public service and details of the standard working hours per week for each individual grade. This data is not held in my Department.
