Recent publications from the NERI have contributed towards a more detailed understanding of the nature of the Republic of Ireland’s income and earnings distribution – a key context for the formation of public policy. See here and here and here.
Dealing only with taxable income, data from the Revenue Commissioners latest Statistical Report (for the tax year 2010) offers a useful insight into the distribution of earnings. The data details the distribution of tax cases (individuals or couples who are jointly assessed) by total gross income for that tax year. We highlight this data in the latest edition of the NERI's Quarterly Economic Facts, indicator 4.6a (p69-70).
Simplifying the data, we can divide the Republic of Ireland’s annual earnings distribution into four quarters:
• The bottom quarter of earners have incomes of less than €15,000
• The next quarter have incomes of between €15,000 and €30,000
• The next quarter have incomes of between €30,000 and €50,000
• The top quarter of earners have incomes above €50,000
Within the top quarter 5% of tax cases had an income in excess of €100,000 and 1% had an income in excess of €200,000.
You can access the full information in the latest edition of the NERI's Quarterly Economic Facts.