{"id":48343,"date":"2026-09-21T00:22:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T04:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/09\/21\/low-pay-endemic-in-irelands-labour-market-report\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T00:22:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T04:22:51","slug":"low-pay-endemic-in-irelands-labour-market-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/09\/21\/low-pay-endemic-in-irelands-labour-market-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Low pay ‘endemic’ in Ireland’s labour market – report"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

One in three workers earn less than a living wage and struggle to make ends meet, according to new research led by University College Dublin.<\/p>\n

The Working Life on Low Pay Report found that over 30% of workers in a full-time job earn less than the real living wage would pay.<\/p>\n

According to the study, between 13% and 32% of employees have low weekly earnings, depending on the threshold used.<\/p>\n

Almost one in four earn less than two-thirds of the median weekly wage, the conventional measure of low pay.<\/p>\n

Researchers found that low pay is about hours, not just the hourly rate.<\/p>\n

“While seven in ten low-paid workers earn more than the national minimum wage per hour, their pay is low because they work too few hours in the week,” the report found.<\/p>\n

“Just over half of the low paid work part-time, and more than three-quarters of those on 17 to 24 hours a week are low paid.”<\/p>\n

The study also found that women are hit hardest.<\/p>\n

“Almost one in three women are low paid as against 17% of men,” according to the study.<\/p>\n

It found that 59% of low-paid workers are under 25 and around half of are over 65.<\/p>\n

Three sectors hold more than half of the low paid and these are retail, hospitality, and health and social care.<\/p>\n

The border region has the highest rate of low pay, according to the report, which also found that low-paid work is of poor quality.<\/p>\n

“There are few opportunities for training and development, one in four go home physically exhausted most or all of the time, one-third have been shouted at or verbally abused at work in the past year, and nearly one in three struggle to make ends meet,” the study found.<\/p>\n

Dr Lisa Wilson, Senior Economist at the NERI and Adjunct Associate Professor at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School said the Government’s commitment to move the minimum wage towards a living wage is the right one.<\/p>\n

“But most of Ireland’s low-paid workers are not on the minimum wage,” Dr Wilson said.<\/p>\n

“They are above it, on hours that do not add up to a living wage, in jobs they are prepared to work hard in but that offer little training or development in return.”<\/p>\n

“Improving their position means looking at the broader conditions of these jobs, and not only the price of an hour at the minimum,” she added.<\/p>\n

The Working Life on Low Pay report is based on findings from the Working in Ireland Survey 2025 which was administered to 3,040 workers.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One in three workers earn less than a living wage and struggle to make ends meet, according to new research led by University College Dublin. The Working Life on Low Pay Report found that over 30% of workers in a full-time job earn less than the real living wage would pay. According to the study, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}