Rise in minimum wage job vacancies last year

The national minimum wage increased to €12.70 at the start of 2024.

The number of job vacancy advertisements during 2024 that only paid the minimum wage increased to 15.5% after the hourly minimum rate rose to €12.70, a new study from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found.

The study, which was funded by the Low Pay Commission, used online job vacancy data to examine minimum wage employment across the country.

The data was derived from job vacancy postings between 2018 and 2024. The incidence of minimum wage job vacancies is calculated as the percentage of all hourly-paid vacancies with a wage rate equal to the prevailing minimum wage in that year.

On average, between 2018 and 2024, it was about 7.6%.

In 2024, the data recorded 74,533 job vacancy advertisements, of which 11,555 were minimum wage.

According to the study, 15.5% of jobs advertised in 2024 were for minimum wage — more than double the 7.4% recorded in 2023. However, this coincided with the minimum wage increasing from €11.30 to €12.70 per hour in the beginning of last year.

The study noted workers earning between €11.31 and €12.70 in 2023 would have been considered minimum wage workers after the increase on January 1, 2024, “driving up the incidence of minimum wage employment”.

The minimum wage increased again at the start of this year to €13.50.

The study also profiled the top 20 minimum wage employers in the country. The main business activity of the top minimum wage employer in Ireland is "catering and facilities management".

Retail was the business activity of both the second and third largest minimum wage employers.

Together, the top three minimum wage employers in Ireland advertised for 620 minimum wage workers during the period under study.

“Other large minimum wage employers typically operate in catering services, retail or hospitality. Generally, these employers posted minimum wage vacancies for catering staff, service staff, sales assistants, cleaners, packaging assistants or administrative staff,” the report said.

The incidence of minimum wage job vacancies differs across counties. From 2021 to 2024, about 7% of job advertisements in Dublin were for minimum wage workers, compared to over 20% in Donegal.

Cork’s average during this period stood at 10.9%.

The study found the top three minimum wage jobs in Ireland were kitchen helpers, shop sales assistants, and bartenders. The top three skills required for minimum wage jobs are "customer service", "communication", and "sales"

For positions that specifically mention previous work experience in their job advertisements, 80% of minimum wage positions require one to three years of previous experience.

The ESRI said the length of time an online vacancy was online was taken as a measure of how difficult the vacancy was to fill.

“The time it takes to fill minimum wage positions is no different from higher paid jobs.” 

Ultan Courtney, chair of the Low Pay Commission, said this research “gives us important insights into how minimum wage workers interact within a modern economy and labour market”.