Capital gains ...as workers in Dublin paid €3,700 more

IF you want to earn the big bucks, get a job in Dublin. That’s the brass tacks from the latest Central Statistics analysis of earnings in the country.

People in the capital take home almost €3,700 more a year on average compared with anywhere else in the country, and the gap is getting wider.

Average income – which includes wages, welfare payments and other cash such as investment returns – in Dublin is €24,969 per year. This is more than 17% higher than the State average of €21,270.

The latest official figures don’t take into account the impact of Covid-19 as they relate to 2018.

The previous year the gap was

€3,150, with Dublin-based staff’s average income at €23,864, which was 14% more than the State average in 2017 of €20,714.

The county with the lowest income was Donegal at €16,490, which is a yawning gap of €8,479 compared to those in the capital.

The difference between Dublin and the rest of the country is growing wider too.

The CSO said: ‘Dublin continues to remain the only region with higher per capita disposable income than the State average during the entire 2009-2018 period while the border and west regions continue to earn significantly less than the State average.

‘In contrast, the mid-west and the mid-east regions showed incomes on a par with the State average during the same period.’