Living Wage
The Living Wage rate for 2024/25 is €14.75 per hour
Living Wage Ireland 2024/25 - €14.75 per hour
The Living Wage for 2024/25 is €14.75 per hour. This is a slight (€0.05) decrease from the 2023/24 rate of €14.80 per hour, but remains significantly above the national minimum wage (€12.70 per hour in 2024).
This is the minimum rate required for a full-time worker (without dependents) to afford the goods and services that people have agreed are essential for enabling a life with dignity.
The Living Wage rate is calculated by researchers at the Vincentian MESL Research Centre at SVP building on the evidence from the Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) work. The rate is reviewed and published by the Living Wage Technical Group. It reflects the real costs faced by employees in Ireland. The change to the annual Living Wage rate is determined by changes in living costs and income taxes.
Over the past year the cost of the goods and services tracked for calculating the Living Wage has increased by 1.7%. Within this, food costs increased by 1.5% and energy costs decreased by 16.6%. The largest cost increase was rent, which rose by 6.6% to €210.60 per week.
Tax changes in the last budget, particularly the Rent Tax Credit, played an important role by increasing the net (after-tax) incomes of lower paid workers. The combined amount of income tax, USC and PRSI that would be paid by a Living Wage worker reduced from €71.58 per week to €61.16 per week, a reduction of €10.42, mostly driven by the Rent Tax Credit (The Living Wage calculation is based on the assumption that lower income workers rent).
This is the first time the Living Wage has fallen since the Technical Group started calculating it a decade ago. Cost of living policy measures, particularly the Rent Tax Credit and the once-off Electricity Credits, had a tangible impact on this years Living Wage rate calculation. Without the Rent Tax Credit the hourly rate would be €0.50 higher; without the Electricity Credits the hourly rate would be €0.20 higher.
The Living Wage rate is based on the rationale that full-time employment will at least provide for a socially acceptable minimum standard of living for a single person without dependents. It represents the minimum required to meet physical, social and psychological needs, and enable a life with dignity.
This differs from the Government’s Living Wage which adopts a fixed threshold approach as opposed to the “basket of good” approach used by the LWTG. The Government’s living wage aims to be set at 60% of the median wage by 2026, which in 2024 was estimated to be €13.80 per hour.
A Living Wage is intended to establish an hourly wage rate that should provide employees with sufficient income to achieve an agreed acceptable minimum standard of living. In that sense it is an income floor; representing a figure which allows employees afford the essentials of life. Earnings below the Living Wage suggest employees are forced to do without certain essentials so they can make ends-meet.
Further details on the Living Wage and on the methodology used to calculate the hourly Living Wage rate can be found on www.livingwage.ie