Yesterday, the UK think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies issued a report noting that average UK household incomes had returned to around their pre-recession level after a “historically slow recovery”.
The latest data on Irish income levels tell a different story.
Using data from the CSO’s SILC survey, we can track average and median household incomes back to 2005 (see chart). On the basis of the latest data (for 2013 and released in January 2015) the median (middle) household gross income is 14% below its 2007 level. The average gross household income is 9.2% below. Using a measure of disposable income (after taxes and transfers) median incomes levels are 13% below their 2007 levels and mean incomes are 14.4% below.
Even allowing for some slow growth in incomes since 2013 (via some earnings increases, job creation and taxation changes), the overall picture is of Irish incomes back at around 2005-2006 levels. Not far off the ‘lost decade’ often mentioned in assessments of the Republic’s recent economic history.
There are more details on recent income trends in the latest edition of the NERI’s Quarterly Economic Facts, indicator 4.3a (p69-70).