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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— village December 2009 - January 2010
categories of public sec-
tor employees are in the €, - €,
and €, - €, bracket with almost
, in each. The next biggest category is
the , state workers earning between
€, and €,. What’s most strik-
ing about the table below, however, is the
whopping number of workers - across the
state as a whole - earning less than €,.
Overall it’s % of those in PAYE work, or
, employees in total. Individually,
these workers are more than €, shy
“…even getting
hold of outdated
data wasn’t easy”
-
’
Mainstream opinion is set against public-sector workers but the figures
don’t add up
j a m e s n i x
Public-sector pay
Frontline: undervalued
Income Tax 2007
Public Sector Employees All PAYE Employees
Range of Gross income Total Number Total Number
€0 - €10,000 49,747 414,298
€10,001 - €20,000 64,116 392,697
€20,001 - €30,000 69,766 379,180
€30,001 - €40,000 69,954 263,576
€40,001 - €50,000 55,586 167,904
€50,001 - €60,000 34,562 103,273
€60,001 - €70,000 22,555 67,776
€70,001 - €80,000 15,635 45,237
€80,001 - €90,000 10,379 29,668
€90,001 - €100,000 7,045 19,868
€100,001 - €110,000 4,779 13,324
€110,001 - €120,000 3,298 9,244
€120,001 - €130,000 2,350 6,308
€130,001 - €140,000 1,698 4,698
€140,001 - €150,000 1,088 3,247
€150,001 - €160,000 694 2,313
€160,001 - €170,000 435 1,635
€170,001 - €180,000 247 1,153
€180,001 - €190,000 206 942
€190,001 - €200,000 131 708
€200,001 - €210,000 91 537
€210,001 - €220,000 66 409
Over €220,000 195 2,276
Totals 414,623 1,930,271
How should the axe fall on
public-sector pay?
More than
200,000: 35%
175,000: 32.5%
160,000: 30%
145,000: 27.5%
130,000: 25%
115,000: 22.5%
100,000: 20%
90,000: 17.5%
85,000: 15%
80,000: 12.5%
75,000: 10%
70,000: 8%
65,000: 6.5%
60,000: 5%
55,000: 4%
50,000 3%
45,000 2%
40,000 1%
Less than
40,000 0%
of the average industrial wage of €,,
and how families with two breadwinners
make ends meet earning less than €,
between them I don’t know.
Overall, public sector employees make up
% of those in the PAYE system. However,
they are under-represented at the low-
er-paid level, and over-represented in the
€, to €, bracket. The public
sector accounts for just % of those earn-
ing under €, a year. Contrast that
with the €, to €, bracket.
Here, the public sector consistently beats
the one-third mark, reaching a high point in
or around the €, level where public
sector employees make up %. Above the
€, level, the public sector dips down
again, and by when it gets above €,
accounts for just one twelfth of employees.
Unemployment has risen substantially
and almost exclusively in the private sector.
The dated nature of the data must be a prob-
lem here. Essentially, the budget arithmetic
is going to be based on figures that are years
old and hopelessly outdated. The following
are figures: data won’t be avail-
able until mid and even getting hold of
outdated data wasn’t easy. Until February the
Department of Finance was keeping to the
line that there were little more than ,
public sector employees – not ,!
These blatantly wrong figures (which must
have forgotten about the health service, or
some other gargantuan error) were given in
a response to a question by Richard Bruton
on February
th
. Go to www.kildar-
estreet.com and scroll down to question
on that date if you think I’m having you on.
The Department of Finance was in better
shape by October. On the st
of that month
it released the first half of the table below in
response to a question by Joan Burton (question
). However, the response in October just
gave global numbers for those earning more
than €, (, employees in the
state as a whole, of which , are in pub-
lic sector). The more detailed table below was
secured by Green Party TD for Dun Laothaire in
Dublin, Ciáran Cuffe on November
th
.
So what pointers does the table offer?
Well, that depends on your perspective really.
Here’s my doodle on how to wield the axe.
Would it save €.bn? No, it wouldn’t. It ’s
deliberately far too light at the lower end of
the spectrum. But, begin in this way, and
you’d see how far you’d get and then adjust
accordingly. And don’t think it’s only fit
for the recycle bin now since budget day is
behind us. We’ll all be back here in eight or
nine months time.
