Recession, Austerity and Household Income
The experience of recession and austerity over recent years has been widespread. The impact has been greatest on those who lost their jobs since the combined economic, fiscal, banking, property and social crisis hit Ireland. Looking at just once indicator of the recession, household income, we can...
Ireland has the lowest Tax Wedge in Europe
The tax wedge measures the difference between the total labour costs to the employer (wages + employers PRSI) and the corresponding net take-home pay for an employee (gross wages - all income taxes and PRSI). It is generally reported as a percentage of total labour costs. The latest OECD figures for...
Public sector clerical workers paid below the OECD average
Comparing wages of public sector workers across countries poses many difficulties. Nevertheless the OECD publishes some useful information. In 2009 public sector clerical workers were paid below the OECD average. This is the latest available data (more timely data should be available in June). The...
Working and living below the poverty line: ‘The Working Poor’
16% of the Irish population lives on an income which is less than the official poverty line - about €210 per adult per week. Given a population of approximately 4.58 million people this implies that almost 730,000 live at risk of poverty. In the latest edition of the NERI's Quarterly Economic Facts...
NERI Seminar: In-work poverty and the living wage in the UK
Jane Wills Presentation made at NERI seminar.
How much income do you need in retirement?
Pensions and pension's policy are back on the agenda following the recent release of the OECD report on the Irish pensions system. Details and the document are here: http://www.welfare.ie/en/pressoffice/Pages/pr220413.aspx At the core of much discussion on pension issues is the question of what is...
Northern Ireland still lags behind UK on Earnings
The Distribution of earnings has remained remarkably static in Northern Ireland over the past two years. The number of people earning under £20,000 was 57%, the same figure recorded in the previous year. The most significant decreases have been among those earning over £150,000 and those earning...
Ireland has the sixth lowest labour costs in Western Europe
In the European Union Irish hourly labour costs (the average cost to an employer of hiring a person for an hour) are below those of Germany, Austria, Finland, Netherlands, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden. This is according to the latest data from Eurostat, the European statistics...
How much do households need to live on?
A regular topic in recent discussion of the policies Government is (finally) adopting to address insolvency issues is: How much of a household's income should be put towards debt repayment and how much should households be left with to live on? Despite all the recent discussion, there is a simple...
Still a high income country – despite the recession
Indicator 4.1 from the NERI's latest Quarterly Economics Facts (QEF) document shows that despite the financial crisis, the Republic of Ireland's income per capita remains high. The latest data, for 2011, show that Ireland's average income of €35,400 is the sixth highest in the EU. The figure is...