Higher-income private sector employees earning more than public sector counterparts 

CSO figures show broader earnings range in the private sector, with higher income public sector employees earning less than private sector counterparts 

When firm size was included, public sector employees were worse off in terms of gross pay, the CSO said.

The public-private pay differential ranged on average from 0.9% to a decrease of 6.6% in 2022, new figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reveal. 

The CSO found public-sector employees earning higher incomes were worse off compared to private-sector workers, according to trends in the public-private pay differential which is known as the public-sector discount. 

However, the CSO noted that the trend reversed for public sector workers on lower incomes who were better off in terms of gross pay compared to private sector employees, which is referred to as the public-sector premium. 

In 2022, the 90th percentile of private-sector employees earned almost €92,000 on average. For public sector employees in the same earnings percentile, that figure fell to an average of €84,400, reflecting the public sector discount. 

However, the 10th earnings percentile of private-sector employees averaged just over €19,000 in 2022, while for public-sector employees in the same earnings percentile, the figure rose significantly to just under €30,000, reflecting the public sector premium. 

When firm size was included, public sector employees were worse off in terms of gross pay with discount ranges of -4.4% to -6.6% during 2022.

However, when firm size was excluded, public sector employees were slightly better off in terms of gross pay in comparison with private sector employees, with differential ranges from a premium of 0.9% to a discount of -1.4% in 2022.

The CSO noted that there was no clear trend in the public-private pay differential between the years 2019 and 2022, adding that due to the impacts of the pandemic on the labour market and earnings from 2020 to 2022, it was too early to see if reductions in the public-private pay differential between 2018-2020 were a definitive trend.

The CSO also found that the size of the pay differential in the public sector was higher for females than for males, meaning that females in the public sector had a higher pay differential than males in the public sector when compared to their private sector counterparts.