10% WORKERS EARN MIN WAGE OR LESS..
And more than half on basic pay are women
ONE in 10 workers are earning the minimum wage or less and most of these are women, figures showed yesterday. The Central Statistics Office reported that between April 1 and December 31 last year 155,100 people said they were being paid €9.15 an hour – the basic wage for 2016. Around 54% of these were female with 84,400 women on basic salaries compared to 70,700 men. Almost two in five of these were under 24 even though this age group made up less than 10% of workers. And shockingly, 22,500 people were paid less than the minimum wage. Dr Sean Healy, from Social Justice Ireland which is campaigning for a living wage of €11.50, said there is a “serious problem”. He added: “So many Irish jobs are precarious or pay very low wages around the minimum wage or less. “Or a lot are unstable – they are working on a zero-hour contract or on a precarious contract. It’s very significant so many young people are in this as young people have been treated very poorly by Ireland since the crash of 2008. “The argument of a national living wage is very strong.” However, it was better news for older workers. Just 5.6% of those aged 35 to 44 and 5.5% aged 45 to 54 were at the bottom end of the pay scale. Meanwhile, the services sector was responsible for more than 80% of those earning the national minimum wage or less. Mechanics were particularly hard done by as motor vehicle repair workers accounted for more than 25% of that figure, while hotel and food services made up just over 24%. Almost three in five people on the minimum wage worked part-time despite making up just over a fifth of all employees in the country. The minimum wage increased to €9.25 an hour in January.