1 in 4 Northern Ireland workers do not earn enough for a decent standard of living
The Nevin Economic Research Institutel published its latest Quarterly Economic Observer today Tuesday 25th March. In it, we examine the extent of low pay across Northern Ireland: 25% of workers earn less than the 'Living Wage' (169,000). 17% are officially classified as low paid (115,000) and 9% (61...
Monday Blog: Poverty, Wages and Violence
The publication – coincidentally – of two reports in Northern Ireland in the last week has drawn attention to the importance of wages in the Northern economy. While the reports received very extensive media coverage in the Northern media, there was very little in the South. This is regrettable as...
A Living Wage: the impacts for employees, employers and the state
A discussion on this issue of a living wage has recently commenced in Ireland. The implementation of a living wage raises issues regarding its impact on different actors in society (employees, employers, civil society and the state). Similarly, successful implementation faces a number of challenges...
Record current account surplus shows space for wage increases
The latest GDP figures are disappointing (showing a contraction in 2013 of 0.3% due to both the 'patent cliff' and a stagnant domestic economy). However, the current account surplus has reached a record high of 6.6% of GDP. For comparison, in 2012 Germany had a surplus of 7% and the Netherlands had...
NERI Seminar: The Irish Labour Market Since the Recession
The March NERI seminar took place this afternoon in the INTO Learning Centre. Rory O'Farrell discussed recent trends in the Irish labour market, focusing on the hollowing out of middle paying jobs. Rory is a researcher at the NERI specialising in the labour market and macroeconomics. He previously...
The Recession and Child 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 2006-08 recorded a decrease from 22.3% to 18.0%, by 2011 (the latest data available from the...
Recent labour market changes consistent with polarisation
Data from the recent Earnings Hours and Employment Costs Survey show that recent trends in employee numbers (employee numbers exclude the self-employed) are consistent with a pattern of polarisation. The patterns are consistent with the effects of austerity combined with an underlying process of...
Women in Ireland: Better educated, living longer but paid less
Saturday March 8th marks International Women’s Day, an opportune time to reflect on the relative socio-economic position of women in our society. While there are a myriad of facts, figures and data that allow us to explore this topic I am going to focus on three ‘gender gaps’ in this blog which uses...
Employment of young women down 17,100
The latest data from the CSO shows employment up roughly 60,000 since the same period of last year, getting close to levels last seen at the end of 2009 (and first seen back in 2005). Interestingly, of the increase in employment of 61,000, over three quarters almost (47,100) of the increase was for...
Keeping an eye on earnings and prices
The past six years have been very challenging with a succession of harsh budgets, pay cuts, tax increases and price hikes faced by all households. For those impacted most, unemployment and emigration have hit home. For others, the challenge to make ends meet has grown harder and harder. While the...