'Why stay in Ireland and have a poorer quality of life?': Cost of living the push factor for Tiernan

'I knew that basically any job in America was going to pay better than Ireland and I have the same costs of bills,' says Tiernan Yates.

When Tiernan Yeates compares his rent to that of his Irish friends, there’s not much difference — but when he gets his pay packet, that’s when he sees the real benefits of living in the US.

Tiernan, who is 22 and from Dublin, decided to move to Seattle in 2019 when he realised he could earn almost three times more money doing the same job as a bartender there.

He said while the cost of living in Ireland and America is “pretty much the same”, there is a major difference in his wages.

“I could save more in America,” he told the Irish Examiner. “I saw that despite having similar costs of living, people were making two, sometimes three times more money in America for the same job.

“That, to me, was an eye-opener, because I knew that basically any job in America was going to pay better than Ireland and I have the same costs of bills, so why would I stay in Ireland and have a poorer quality of life than in the States?

“This is true for a lot of ex-pats who left Ireland in the last couple of years, across Canada, Australia, and the United States.

It’s quite shocking — you make twice the amount of money here and still have the same cost of living.”

Tiernan went to America shortly after completing his Leaving Cert and went from working in bars to engineering for a large healthcare organisation.

'Mind-boggling'

“I was 18 at the time when I emigrated, so I hadn’t a lot of work," he said. "But living in the States now and this being what I know, really, in adulthood, it is mind-boggling to me how the Irish population makes it through every week, makes it through every month.

“People in America are struggling with money — I can only imagine what the Irish people are struggling with. Their problems must be two or three times over and they must be watching their account every day.

“That is no way to live, that is survival. 

A lot of what the Irish population are doing, they are not enjoying life, going on holidays, and doing what they want to do, they’re doing what they have to do.”

Tiernan is currently renting in the US and says there are some things the Government here could do to change things.

“They could do their best to adjust the cost of living to your income, and make sure that the average wage, people can survive on it," he said.

"People can survive on it here versus people being crippled on the same wages in Ireland”.

'More ambition'

He added that entry-level wages are also higher in America, meaning there is a better quality of life in America, which gives people “more ambition”.

“Even in high-paying positions, if you are making for €80,000 to €90,000 in Ireland, you’re doing well for yourself," he said.

“A bartender is pretty much an entry-level job in Ireland and in America. Almost anyone can do it with a few months of training, but if you are making €400 to €500 a week in Dublin, you’d make that almost in the day in America, and you only work three days a week or weekends”.

Mr Yeates said buying a house in Ireland remains a huge issue for his friends who remain at home.

“You have people saving five or six years just for the down payment for their mortgage,” he said. 

“That is no way to live. You’re saving your wages to line up with 30 other people who are doing the same thing”.