Is a ‘living wage’ such a mad idea?
Over recent years I have been involved in publishing a number of research papers and reports on issues related to low income in Ireland. Among these, work with the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice focused on establishing the cost of a minimum essential standard of living in Ireland and...
Wealth in Ireland: stable but what of its distribution?
Indicator 4.4 from the NERI's latest Quarterly Economics Facts (QEF) document shows that despite the financial crisis, net financial wealth per person has been remarkably stable across Europe. In Ireland, the average resident possessed €26,507 of financial wealth (such as cash, bank deposits, or...
Income and Earnings: an insight
Discussion on various policy options and decisions by Government is often framed in the context of the income distribution and the impact on families and individuals above and below certain income thresholds. Whether it is tax increases, welfare reductions, wage changes or the new property tax...
Left out and left behind
The number of young people on the Island of Ireland not in education, employment or training (NEETs) has significantly increased over the last number. Similar to the overall unemployment rate, the number of NEETs remains higher in the Republic of Ireland; however the rate for Northern Ireland has...
Will the IT sector reduce unemployment?
In November, the CSO re-estimated historical estimates of employment. This has caused to seasonally adjusted peak to now be place in Q1 2008 rather than in 2007. Fundamentally the picture remains the same. There has been a sectoral shift in employment with construction hit particularly badly. There...
1 in 5 children at risk of poverty
The proportion of the Republic of Ireland's children living in households whose income is below the 60% of median income poverty line has experienced limited change over the past few years. While the years 2006-07 recorded a decrease from 22.3% to 19.9%, by 2010 almost 1 in every 5 children (19.5%)...
One fifth of Workers are ‘low-paid’
Eurostat, the EU Statistics Agency, recently released new data on the proportion of low-paid workers in Ireland and across the EU. Their analysis defines low-earnings in relative terms measured as those earning two thirds or less of the national median gross hourly earnings. Median earnings are the...
The growth in part-time work
In the current edition of Mandate's regular publication, Shopfloor, I have an article highlighting the growth in part-time work over recent years. In it I highlight some of the material from the recent NERI conference on the unemployment crisis. The key points are: While the headline figures on job...
The effect of international firm mobility on wages and unemployment
Article published in Labour Economics journal "The effect of international firm mobility on wages and unemployment" was recently published in the journal Labour Economics by NERI researcher Rory O'Farrell. A final draft version is provided, and the published article is available here . The views...
Using Minimum Incomes Research for Policy
Last week I and my fellow researchers on the recent Minimum Income Standards work spoke at an Irish Social Policy Association (ISPA) event on the topic of using minimum incomes for policy analysis and policy planning. In my section of the seminar I highlighted six areas where this research is useful...